



















































































| 3 410 

I ,Sa. 

0 - - M l. 

o 


^UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 


' <> ■ .<1 c c/: X 




















✓ 

















/ 









































4 





























¥ 




« 



% 











♦ 

































































































/ 





















JESUS 



ON 


THE HOLY MOUNT. 


BY JOSEPH SANDERSON, D. D. 

1/ 



PUBLISHED BY THE 


AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 

J 


» 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by the American 
Tract Society, in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States 
lor the Southern District of New York. 


We have not followed cunningly devised 
fables, when we made known unto you the 
power and coining of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. For 
he received from God the Father honor and 
glory, when there came such a voice to him 
from the excellent glory, This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this 
voice which came from heaven we heard 
when we were with him in the Holy Mount. 
2 Peter 1 : 16 - 18 . 


































PAGE 


I. The Time. 

II. The Place. 

III. The Company.. 

IV. The Prayer. 

V. The Transfiguration. 

VI. Its Use to Jesus. 

VII. It Use to the Disciples. 

VIII. The Heavenly Visitants. 

IX. Their Glorious Appearance.. 

X. The Lessons of Their Appearance. 

XI. The Subject of Their Converse with Jesus 

XII. The Sleepers and Their Loss. 

XIII. Peter’s Proposition. 

XIV. The Bright Overshadowing Cloud. 

XV. The Feelings of the Disciples Entering the Cloud- 

XVI. “This is My Beloved Son”. 

XVII. “In Whom I Am Well Pleased” —-.. 

XVIII. “Hear Ye Him”. 

XIX. The Effect of that Voice upon the Disciples. 

XX. The Touch and Words of Jesus. 

XXL “Jesus Only”.:. 

XXII. Down the Mountain and the Solemn Charge . 


7 

15 

25 

39 

55 

65 

70 

81 

97 

111 

125 

145 

153 

161 

175 

185 

201 

215 

231 

241 

253 

263 




























Matt. 17:1: “And after six days Jesus taketk Peter, 
James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a 
high mountain apart.” 

Mark 9:2: “And after six days Jesus taketh with him 
Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a high 
mountain apart by themselves.” 

Luke 9 : 28 : “ About an eight days after these sayings, he 
took Peter and John and James, and went up into a moun¬ 
tain to pray.” 

Verse 37 : “And it came to pass, that on the next day, 
when they were come down from the hill, much people met 
him.” 






























► 















. 







































JESUS 


ON 

THE HOLY MOUNT. 


I HE t 


IME, 


“Sun of my soul, thou Saviour dear, 

It is not night if thou art near! 

Oh, may no earth-born cloud arise, 

To hide thee from thy servant’s eyes! ” 

^OD always chooses the most suita¬ 
ble times and seasons for the accom¬ 
plishment of his purposes. The 
transfiguration is no exception. It 
occurred when most needed by the 
Saviour for the confirmation of his Messiah - 
ship and for the encouragement of his human 
spirit, and when most required by the disci¬ 
ples who were privileged to witness it, even 
when the hour approached when ignominy 
l* 




10 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

and shame should be poured upon their Mas¬ 
ter, and when he should die amid the re¬ 
proaches and scorn of the people. 

Nor was the season less appropriate. The 
transfiguration probably took place in the 
night, for Luke informs us that the disciples 
slept, and did not descend the mountain till 
the next day. Besides, what could form a 
better surrounding to the glory about to be 
revealed than the curtain of night, when 
darkness covered the earth, and the sparkling 
children of the sky were dancing in their joy? 
What a befitting time for the manifestation of 
such surpassing glory as was about to flood 
that mountain’s brow! 

Indeed, the night scenes of the Bible are 
among the most impressive of Holy Writ. 
God during the night season has frequently 
manifested himself in kindness to his people, 
and in wrath to his enemies. 

It was amid the darkness upon the plains 
of Mamre that God, with a smoking furnace 
and a burning lamp, confirmed his promise of 
the land of Canaan to Abraham and to his 
seed, and afterwards called upon him to offer 
up his only son whom he loved. 

The vision of a ladder connecting heaven 


THE TIME. 


11 


and earth, with angels upon it and God above 
it, was granted to Jacob as lie rested for the 
night at Bethel; and the Angel at the brook 
Jabbok wrestled with him till the breaking of 
the day. 

It was a night much to be remembered on 
which God slew the first-born in Egypt, and 
brought his people forth from the land of bond¬ 
age. Three hundred chosen men of Israel, 
under Gideon, armed only with trumpets, 
pitchers, and lanterns, discomfited by night 
the hosts of Midian and Amalek; and Baby¬ 
lon’s monarch saw his doom written by night 
upon his palace walls. 

The angelic birth-song of the Saviour was 
heard by the Bethlehem shepherds as they 
kept watch over their flocks by night; and 
the parents of that infant Immanuel fled by 
night with their precious charge to Egypt from 
the wrath of the Judean king. 

The soul of the rich fool was required of 
him at night; and at midnight the door was 
shut against the foolish virgins who had not 
prepared for the bridegroom’s coming. 

“ At even Jesus sat down with the twelve” 
to eat the last Passover and institute the sup¬ 
per of the Lord; and during the darkness that 


12 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

succeeded, he agonized, was betrayed, and 
condemned. 

The angel of the Lord released the im¬ 
prisoned apostles by night, and sent them 
forth to preach; and the Philippian jailer was 
alarmed at midnight by the earthquake, and 
convicted by the Spirit of his sins, inquired 
what he must do to be saved. 

And shall it be at night when the sign of 
the Son of man shall be seen in the heavens, 
and the Judge shall come with power and 
great glory? We know, at least, that “he 
shall come as a thief in the night.” 

What scenes then of glory and terror by 
night has this earth witnessed during its pil¬ 
grimage of nearly six thousand years ! What 
lights and shadows have brightened or dark¬ 
ened its bosom as it advanced on its mission 
to fulfil its appointment by God! These 
things we now “see through a glass darkly,” 
but by-and-by God’s people shall come to a 
place of which it is said, “ And there shall 
be no night there ”—no scenes of sin, sorrow, 
weariness, ignorance, desolation, fear, death; 
where there shall be no need of darkness to 
render the glory more luminous and magnifi¬ 
cent; where the Lord God giveth the light, 


THE TIME. 


13 


and tjie Lamb is the unfading glory. And by- 
and-by the enemies of God shall come to a 
world all night—all darkness, where there is 
naught but weariness, sin, sorrow, desolation, 
death, and these unchanging and for ever. 

How awful will it be for the sinner to pass 
away and miss the enjoyment of heaven 7 s eter¬ 
nal day, and to feel that there will be naught 
for him but the utter darkness of hell! How 
terrible to think that, in some period of eter¬ 
nity, his spirit may be crying in the weariness 
of its torment to him that keepeth guard at 
its prison door, “Watchman, what of the 
night? Watchman, what of the night?” And 
the watchman cannot answer, “The morning 
comethbut in a voice that sounds the knell 
of a spirit left in hopelessness for ever, he 
says, “Night, night, night for ever and ever! 77 

But no night scene of the Bible exceeds 
that of the transfiguration in instruction and 
in glory. 































A 




* * 



































. 



















. 








' 






























































Matt. 17 : 1 : “And after six days Jesus taketh Peter, 
James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a 
high mountain apart.” 

Mark 9 :2 : “And after six days Jesus taketh with him 
Peter, and James, and John, and leadetli them up into a high 
mountain apart by themselves.” 

Luke 9 :28 : “He took Peter and John and James, and 
went up into a mountain to pray.” 






















































































































? . 


































































































II. 


Jhe "Place. 

“When in ecstacy sublime 
Tabor’s glorious mount I climb, 

In the too transporting light 
Darkness rushes o’er my sight. ” 

early as the sixth century Mount 
^ a ^ or was fi xe( i upon as “the high 
mountain apart” of the evangelic 
narrative. 

But modern travellers are not 
agreed respecting the sufficiency of the eviden¬ 
ces afforded as to its being the scene of the 
Saviour’s transfigured glory. God has doubt¬ 
less left the precise locality in uncertainty, 
that we may think more of the Saviour who 
consecrated the place with his presence than 
of the locality itself. 

If it was on Tabor, no rising ground on 
earth could have been better adapted for a 
miniature sketch of heaven. It is a mountain 
about one thousand feet high, terminating in 
a beautiful plain at the top, about three miles 
in diameter, and affording a most magnificent 


18 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

view of the surrounding country. To this 
mountain height, perchance, it was that Jesus 
led his three disciples, to give them a glimpse 
of his inexpressible glory as he laid aside for 
a little the garments of a servant, and put on 
for a transient hour his coronation robes. 

Under the Old Testament dispensation, 
mountains were often selected by God as 
places of divine manifestation and glory. 
Moriah, Horeb, Sinai, Pisgali, Nebo, Ebal, 
Carmel, Zion have all been scenes of God's 
wondrous doings. 

It may be that God chose grand and stri¬ 
king features of nature to fix the locality of 
events so that they can never fade from the 
memory of man. Thus the giving of the law 
needs no lofty column of stone to commemo¬ 
rate the event: Mount Sinai lifts its awful 
form towards the clouds, a perpetual unwast¬ 
ing monument. God’s exhibition of himself 
to the awe-struck prophet as lie passed by 
him, heralded by the storm, the earthquake, 
and the flame, requires no pyramid to conse¬ 
crate the spot. Mount Horeb tells where the 
Almighty shrouded his glory and covered the 1 
human face with his fearful hand, so that his 
brightness might not destroy the being who 


THE PLACE. 


19 


would fix on him his gaze. In like manner 
the transfiguration of the Saviour requires no 
pillar of brass to arrest the eye or aid the 
senses, as man contemplates the place where 
the wondrous scene occurred. 

Mountain summits stand through every age 
the silent yet eloquent recorders of some of 
the dealings of heaven with earth. Jesus 
often resorted to them, and made them not 
unfrequently the place of his labors and of his 
devotions. That inimitable sermon recorded 
in the earlier chapters of Matthew was deliv¬ 
ered upon a mount. Upon the mountains of 
Capernaum, Tiberias, and Bethsaida he healed 
the sick, fed the hungry, spent all night in 
prayer, and taught his disciples how to pray. 
Upon Mount Zion lie instituted that supper 
which his followers are to observe “till he 
comeand from the mount of Olives he as¬ 
cended again to glory. 

Many of the great events connected with 
the salvation of man have taken place upon 
mountains. David said, “I will look unto the 
hills whence cometh my help;”.and we need 
not wonder as we behold the Saviour leading 
his three disciples to “a high mountain apart,” 
to be transfigured before them. Its solitude 


20 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

and far removal from human intercourse and 
the sounds of busy life, rendered it more 
adapted for an exhibition of his transfigured 
glory than the city or the plain. 

Jesus doubtless chose the mountain mainly 
for the seclusion and quiet of the place where, 
far away from the haunts of vice and the 
sound of man’s reviling, he could receive to¬ 
kens of the unchanging approbation of Heaven, 
of the sympathy of the spirits of the just made 
perfect, and where he could give to “his own” 
proofs of his oneness with the Father. Thus 
this “high mountain apart” came to be bap¬ 
tized with a flood of heavenly glory. 

History records a very different scene on 
Tabor. In the year 1799, Napoleon Bona¬ 
parte occupied a seat on Tabor while watch¬ 
ing the conflict of armies in the plain beneath. 
An army of Moslem troops, far superior to his 
own in numbers, had attacked the French 
forces, about three thousand strong, under the 
command of Kleber. The thunders of cannon 
and the fierce rattle of musketry, with the 
strains of martial music, filled the air. The 
smoke of battle rolled furiously over the hosts ; 
Napoleon descended the mountain followed 
by his little band, joined Kleber at a critical 


THE PLACE. 


21 


moment in the fight, discomfited the opposing 
Turks, and drove them to the fords of Jordan, 
where Murat sabred them down without mercy, 
and Bonaparte was crowned with laurel. 

What a strange contrast between the bat¬ 
tle of Napoleon and the transfiguration of 
Christ! Christ and Napoleon on the same 
mountain! the one with his wasting cannon 
by his side, the other with the lawgiver and 
prophet just from glory. The piety of heaven 
and the wickedness of hell are strangely blend¬ 
ed in the shifting scenes of earth. 

This Tabor, it is supposed, around whose 
summit the smoke of battle hung, and whose 
sides reverberated with the groans and shrieks 
of the butchered dying, Peter in one of his 
epistles calls “the holy mount ’ 7 —holy, not 
by the consecration of priests, but by the 
sacred associations connected with it. In 
itself it was not more sacred than the hills 
upon which pagan Rome was built, but Peter 
received on that mount spiritual impressions; 
and whenever that mountain loomed up in his 
memory, it was in connection with these holy 
things. 

And all good men have “holy mounts.” 
Sacred persons will always have sacred places. 


JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


Wherever the tear of penitence has flowed and 
the rebellious will has surrendered—wherever 
the heart has been made soft and the great 
vow has been recorded—wherever pardon has 
been obtained and the lamp of hope kindled— 
wherever the bright cloud of love has over¬ 
shadowed us, and the voice sweeter than that 
of an angel has spoken to us—wherever these 
things have occurred, in vale or on hill, in 
the bosom of the family or on the surging sea, 
in the workshop or in the sanctuary, that 
place will be sacred to the soul, because of 
the holy impressions that soul has there re¬ 
ceived. 

The place that is thus “holy” to one may 
not be holy to another. “ The high mountain 
apart” was “holy” only to the three disciples 
who witnessed the scene and experienced the 
emotions it awakened. The other disciples 
would not probably speak of it as “holy.” 
Jacob’s holy place was where he wrestled with 
the angel until the break of day. Natlian- 
ael’s hol} r place was under the fig-tree, where 
he was seen by the Saviour at prayer. Zae- 
cheus’ “holy place,” the sycamore-tree on 
whose branches lie sat when the Saviour looked 
up and said, “ Zaccheus, make haste and come 


THE PLACE. 


23 


down, for to-day I must abide at thy house.” 
Paul s “ holy place,” the spot on which he fell 
beneath God’s stroke of light on his way to 
Damascus. 

I cannot doubt that every child of God 
has some such holy place. It may be the pew 
in which the individual sat when he heard the 
word that penetrated to his inmost soul. It 
may be the room in which he met with a few 
bosom friends to pour out their united suppli¬ 
cations to God. It may be the wayside along 
which he walked as the voice of the Saviour 
was heard saying, “What wilt thou that I shall 
do unto thee ?” and the reply that came from 
his heart of hearts was, “Lord, that I may 
receive my sight—that I may see things in 
the light of eternity.” It may be the closet 
in which he knelt and committed himself to 
God, or the chamber where he stood with 
breaking heart and tearful eye, as he watched 
the sharpening features and heaving breast 
and glazing eye of that loved one, dear to him 
as his own soul, as he or she passed away to 
glory. 

There is no place so wild or lonely that it 
cannot become the scene of fellowship with 
God. “a holy mount.” When John was in 


JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Patmos, an outcast from society and far from 
the friends and work he loved, he was “in the 
spirit on the Lord’s day,” and had the bright¬ 
est prospects of the triumphs of the gospel and 
of the glory of the Lamb. 

It is not well, therefore, to be without our 
“holy place.” We may not have the fields 
into which we can go at even, like Isaac, to 
meditate; nor a fig-tree beneath which we can 
kneel, like Nathanael; nor a sycamore-tree 
up which we can climb, like Zaccheus, to see 
the Saviour as he passes by; but we can have 
some place of privacy and retiredness from 
the busy scenes of life to which we can go, as 
we say to the things of the world, as Abraham 
said to the young men, “Abide ye here, while 
I and the lad go yonder and worship.” 

Such a place will be to us a Tabor, where 
we can see Jesus in his beauty and glory, 
where we shall hear voices from the spirit- 
land saying to our immortal souls, “This is my 
beloved Son, hear ye him ;” and where, as 
we rise from our knees, we shall be ready to 
join with Peter in saying, “ Lord, it is good 
to be here.” 


Matthew 17:1: “And after six days, Jesus taketli Peter, 
James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a 
high mountain apart.” 

Mark 9:2: “And after six days, Jesus taketli with him 
Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into a 
high mountain apart by themselves.” 

Luke 9 :28 : “He took Peter and John and James, and 
went up into a mountain to pray. ” 


nciiy Mount. 


2 



III. 


T he F 


OMP ANY. 



“Where would I be? 

With thee, O Christ, in lands of light, 
With thee, O Christ, in lands of night, 
Or with thee in Gethsemane ; 

Oh, more than all, with thee!” 


ET us join this company as they 
ascend the mountain. It is formed 
of Jesus and his three disciples— 
Peter, James, and John. These 
three had been partners in secular 
business, and were now to become eye-wit¬ 
nesses of the majesty of Jesus. Jesus, we 
may suppose, goes a little before, as their 
Leader and Commander, and also as their 
Forerunner to the glory that shall soon sur¬ 
round them, as well as to that which shall be 
revealed hereafter. 

Though he is “a man of sorrows,” there 
is something unearthly about his mien, and 
a pleasing sadness has settled upon his face. 
A mild serenity overspreads his countenance. 



28 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

His whole demeanor declares he is “full of 
grace and truth;” and he is evidently aware 
that he is going where glory awaits him, and 
where he “shall be declared to be the Son of 
God with power.” 

Peter, we may suppose, is on his right, 
nearly by his side. There is an emphasis in 
his very step; a strange earnestness is visible 
in every lineament of his face, and his forward 
movement has something in it which charac¬ 
terizes him as rash and impetuous, though most 
loving and sincere. 

John, perchance, is on the left, and next 
to the heart of Jesus, for he is the disciple 
whom.Jesus loves. There is a transcendent 
beauty visible in his every feature. What a 
sweetness in his smile! What an ineffable 
repose upon his brow! What a mild lustre 
in his eye! There is a babe-like simplicity 
in his mien, and an artless, tender loveliness 
beaming in his very face. We might readily 
take him to be the writer of that sweet sen¬ 
tence, “ God is love.” 

James, the Lord’s brother, is, we may im¬ 
agine, by the side of John. There is a firm¬ 
ness also in his tread, accompanied by mild, 
heavenly determination in his whole demeanor 


THE COMPANY. 


29 


which well befits the apostle who should first 
seal the doctrines of the gospel with his blood. 

Behold this interesting group! The Sav¬ 
iour, with his three favorite disciples, climb¬ 
ing together the holy mount. We say favorite 
disciples; for do they not merit the epithet 
because of Christ’s treatment of them on sev¬ 
eral occasions ? 

When He puts all out, and takes the 
child’s mother and goes into the chamber of 
death, who are the disciples whom he suffers 
to follow him to witness his raising from the 
dead “Jairus the ruler’s daughter?” Peter 
and James and John. 

When He goes into Gethsemane’s garden, 
to wrestle with the powers of darkness and to 
be agonized with the burden of his people’s 
sins, who are the disciples whom he takes 
with him to listen to his supplications with 
strong crying and tears, and to be witnesses 
of his sweat as drops of blood falling down to 
the ground? Peter and James and John. 

When He ascends the mount, to be trans¬ 
figured and foreshow the coming of the Son 
of man in his kingdom, who are selected to be 
eye-witnesses of his majesty, ere they shall 
taste of death? Peter and James and John. 


30 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

But why, it may be asked, were these three 
disciples so often and so peculiarly favored by 
the Lord ? 

We answer: Jesus, as God, is a sovereign 
Being, and may do many things of the reason 
for which we must be content to be ignorant. 
When he is pleased to give a reason, it is our 
privilege to accept it; but when he chooses 
to be silent, it is our duty to bow and ac¬ 
quiesce. 

These three—Peter and James and John— 
were chosen from the apostolic company with 
that distinguishing love which is certainly to 
be traced in the dealings of Christ. He loves 
all his people—loves them largely, richly, 
freely. But he takes some of them at times, 
as it were, “apart,” for the special revelation 
of the glory of his grace. 

To all his real disciples he manifests him¬ 
self as he does not unto the world. Though 
there were only three disciples at this time 
beholding his glory, yet all the disciples had 
frequently beheld it in his wondrous miracles 
and mighty works. And so do all his true 
people behold it now in a manner peculiar to 
themselves. They see Christ as no others see 
him. Yea, they obtain a view of him to which 


THE COMPANY. 


31 


all others are strangers. Hence, while to some 
he is little more than a mere abstraction, or a 
mere historic personage, by his people he is 
loved, trusted, and gloried in. They see in 
him a glory which is real, substantial, un¬ 
earthly, and divine. To him they give their 
love and reverence and confidence, resting on 
him all their hopes for eternity, and going 
without a fear into that dark future, when 
they can feel that they have a firm hold of 
him and he has a firm hold of them. 

But while all Christ’s people have some 
discoveries of Christ made to them, all have 
not the same discoveries, nor are all alike 
privileged with frequent manifestations. Here 
are three of*the disciples on this mount with 
their transfigured Lord, beholding his glory ; 
while the others, with one exception perhaps 
as faithful as they, are at the foot of the mouixt, 
out of the sight of his glory. 

And thus variously does Jesus deal even 
now with his disciples. He does not manifest 
himself to them all in the same manner nor to 
the same extent. To one he reveals conspic¬ 
uously one part of his glorious character, and 
to another another part; causing some of his 
people to discover with peculiar clearness and 


32 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

delight the completeness of his righteousness, 
the place he holds in their salvation ; while 
others for a time see this dimly or distantly, 
or do not see it at all, but are delighted chiefly 
with the all-sufficiency of his sacrifice, or the 
love and tenderness of his heart. 

To some, again, He vouchsafes a discovery 
of his electing love, giving them an assurance 
of their interest in him, causing them to see, 
and that with the clearest evidence, that he 
has called and chosen them; while others can 
only hope that they are his, and can see only 
this, that “he is nigh to all that call upon 
him,” and “ casteth out none that come to 
him,” and their admiration of him rests on 
the freeness, openness, and expftnsiveness of 
his love. 

And his manifestations of himself to the 
same individual are different at different times: 
now by his providence and Spirit displaying 
to him one part of his character ; and anon, 
by some new operation of his Spirit, bringing 
some other perfection of his nature to sight, 
and impressing the greatness and precious¬ 
ness of that perfection upon his soul. Thus 
Peter and Janies and John, who are to-day 
upon the mount, beholding his glory in all the 


THE COMPANY. 


33 


splendor of his godhead, are in a few days or 
weeks gazing upon him in Gethsemane in the 
very utmost weakness of his manhood. 

Sometimes we can see reasons for these 
varied dealings of Jesus with his people, in 
their character, conduct, and circumstances ; 
but oftener still we must resolve it into the 
“Even so, Father, for so it seemeth good in 
thy sight.” Sometimes he makes us feel that 
he will not only choose his people where he 
will, and make whom he will his people, but 
that when he has made them his people, he 
will deal with them as he will, and divide to 
every man out of the riches and outpouring 
of his grace severally as he will. 

Be it ours to covet earnestly the best gifts, 
to seek to be among those greatly honored of 
God ; not only of the twelve, but also of the 
three, that we may look far into Gethsemane's 
gloom, and have a refreshing glimpse of Tabor’s 
glory. 

We should seek to be a Noah who found 
grace in the eyes of the Lord, or afi Abraham 
who was called the friend of God, or a Daniel, 
the man greatly beloved ; thus seeking, not 
indeed, like the mother of Zebedec’s children, 
more worldly honor and glory than our breth- 
2 * 


34 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

ren in Christ, but a place in the Saviour’s 
bosom and a seat upon his throne, so that 
Christianity may shine in us in its truest, 
brightest lustre, and the “glory that excel- 
letli” may accrue to God. 

To the question why these three disciples 
were so peculiarly favored and honored by 
Him, grace, grace, distinguishing grace, is the 
only reply. Peter and James and John, as 
they ascended the mountain with their Lord 
and Master, and marvelled at the privilege 
they enjoyed while the other disciples were 
below in the plain, might, each one for him¬ 
self, have adopted the language of Paul, and 
.said, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” 

But it is not inconsistent with the grand 
dignity of the godhead, to understand that 
Jesus, as a man, has his special friends. “He 
loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus,” 
and their home was his frequent resort. John 
was the disciple whom Jesus loved, not as he 
loves you and me only, and as he loved the 
rest of his disciples, but whom he loved as a 
special friend. Christ was truly man as well 
as truly God. Exclude sin from him, and he 
had all the joys and sorrows, sympathies and 
sufferings, partialities and preferences, loves 


THE COMPANY. 


- 35 


and likings, with which all humanity is pene¬ 
trated. “ To know him after the flesh/ 7 to 
enjoy his peculiar friendship, was a privilege 
confined to few, but a privilege granted to 
Peter, James, and John when he took them 
to be witnesses of his transfigured glory. 

And Jesus, in this particularity of his love 
as man, hath set us an example in which we 
may follow his steps. In his example we see 
enough to justify the partialities of friendship. 
He would not have us indeed shut up “our 
bowels of compassion 77 against any of our fel¬ 
low-creatures, for we are to “do good unto all 
men as we have opportunity ; 77 but he teaches 
us by his own example that we are not ex¬ 
pected to take every man into our bosom. 
We are at liberty to choose and select. We 
may have many friends whom we highly es¬ 
teem ; but, like David, we may have but one 
Jonathan, as dear to us as our own soul; or, 
like David 7 s Lord, one John whom we would 
permit to lean upon our bosom at supper. 
Every man must have, and has a right to have, 
his special intimate friends. His very nature 
demands it. The word of God approves it, and 
the God-man, in his frequent resortings to the 
family at Bethany, and in his singling out 


36 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Peter and James and John on several occa- 

i 

sions as witnesses of his power, sufferings, and 
glory, has set his seal to the truth that we may 
have our favorite ones. 

But there may have been another reason 
why Jesus selected these three disciples to 
be witnesses of his glory. These three are 
called by the apostle Paul, “pillars” in the 
church; that is, eminent among their breth¬ 
ren, distinguished, and, by the grace of God, 
singularly excellent men. 

Peter was noted for his zeal and earnest¬ 
ness, as well as for the noble confession he 
had just made : “ Thou art the Christ, the Son 
of the living God.” He also was the first who 
should make known the gospel of the king¬ 
dom both among Jews and Gentiles—one in 
whom there slumbered a wisdom and sagacity, 
a fervor and an eloquence, which the first 
touch of the fiery tongue of Pentecost aroused 
into an undying flame, to become a light, a 
glory, and a defence around the infant church. 

He was the first, as we have said, to con¬ 
fess Christ; but alas, was also the first to dis¬ 
suade him from dying. He may have been 
selected, therefore, partly because of his noble 
confession, and partly because of his weak- 


THE COMPANY. 


37 


ness, which needed to be corrected by giving 
him an encouraging view of the Saviour’s 
glory. 

James was the first apostle who yielded 
up his life for the truth—the van of that noble 
army of martyrs who sealed the doctrines of 
the gospel with their blood ; and the sight of 
the transfigured Saviour was well adapted to 
encourage him to follow Christ even to death, 
that he might be a partaker of his glory. 

John was the teacher of the deity of the 
Lord Jesus—his bosom friend, his youngest 
follower, his beloved disciple, the survivor of 
all the other disciples, who at the last hour, 
after having experienced severe persecutions, 
still proclaimed his Master to the heathen 
world. He needed to be qualified for all this 
by the Transfiguration ; and as a defender of 
Christ’s deity and glory, he could truly say, 
“We beheld his glory.” 

Besides, these three were to be witnesses 
of that agony and bloody sweat in the garden 
of Gethsemane; and they needed to see this 
great glory, that they might descend from the 
mount, and be prepared to endure the sight 
of that great agony in the garden. It was 
necessary to the strengthening of their faith, 


38 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


to be first on Tabor before they came to Getli- 
semane. They required the strength of the 
one, that they might be enabled to pass tri¬ 
umphantly through the pains and agonies of 
the other. The revelation of the glory of 
Christ prepared them to be witnesses of his 
humiliation. Yea, they were so depressed 
with the tidings of his death, that they needed 
some strong stimulus to sustain and invigo¬ 
rate their fainting spirits and failing hearts. 
Christ therefore takes them to show them in 
the brightness of Tabor that the crown is con¬ 
nected with the cross ; that the glorified One 
is he who was the Crucified ; and that he 
who should sink so low that his own friends 
would ignorantly forsake him, was neverthe¬ 
less he who should ascend so high that angels 
would become his convoy to the skies, and 
cherubim and seraphim should continually 
cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of 
Hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.’’ 



Luke 9 :28 : “He took Peter and John and James, and 
ent up into a mountain to pray.” 






















♦ 














































. / 























































































































































IV. 


"j^HE j D RAYER. 

“ Oh, Thou by whom we come to God, 

The Life, the Truth, the Way, 

The path of prayer thyself hast trod ; 

Oh, teach us how to pray.” 

f ^HE gospels are full of proofs that 
Jesus was both God and man. 
Such proofs^meet us on almost every 
page. At the grave of Lazarus he 
weeps as a man, and then says, “ Come 
forth!” like a God. Approaching the barren 
fig-tree, he hungers as a man, and then with 
a word withers the fig-tree like a God. Du¬ 
ring a raging storm in the sea of Tiberias, he 
lay in- the hinder part of the ship and slept 
like a man ; and being called upon by the 
affrighted disciples, he arose and rebuked the 
winds like a God. Having wrought a stupen¬ 
dous miracle, he goes into a mountain apart 
to pray like a man; and in the fourth watch 
of the night, he comes to his disciples walking 
on the sea like a God. On yonder bloody 
tree he suffers like a man; and then opens 


42 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

the gates of Paradise to the dying thief like 
a God. In yonder sepulchre, wrapped in a 
winding-sheet, the blessed Jesus lies cold and 
pale in death like a man; but on the morning 
of the third day, by his own immortal energies, 
lie bursts the bonds of death, and rises trium¬ 
phant like a God. After his resurrection, 
meeting with his disciples, he takes a piece of 
broiled fish and of a honey-comb, and eats 
with them as a man ; and then leads them 
out to Bethany, and blesses them; and as he 
blesses them he ascends in radiant majesty 
far above all heavens. 

The narrative of the transfiguration affords 
us another of these proofs. He appeared be¬ 
fore his disciples on that mount in glory and 
majesty as God ; but before that wondrous 
change passed over him, he knelt as man, and 
poured out his supplications to God. “He took 
Peter and John and James, and went up into 
a mountain to pray. And as he prayed he was 
transfigured before them.” 

Indeed, every important event in his his¬ 
tory is preceded or connected with prayer. 

He prayed at his baptism, before ordaining 
his disciples, when he saw the tide of popular¬ 
ity taking a strange turn in his favor—men 


THE PRAYER. 


43 


desiring to take and make him a king—when 
about to enter into the mysterious scenes of 
his suffering, and when he breathed out his 
soul in death. 

One evangelist tells us that “ when he had 
sent the multitude away he went up into a 
mountain apart to pray, and when evening 
was come he was there alone.” Another re¬ 
lates that, after closing his beneficent labors, 
“ he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and 
there prayed.” “ He went up into a mountain 
to pray, and continued all night in prayer.” 
As he was praying in a certain place, when he 
had ceased one of his disciples said to him: 
“Lord, teach us to pray.” Again and again 
it is recorded that when food was spread be¬ 
fore him he looked up to heaven, blessed the 
bread, and brake it for distribution to his dis¬ 
ciples and among the multitude. 

Prayer thus finds its warrant and sanction 
in the life of- Christ. As a man, he always 
gave glory to his Father, rejoiced’ in the to¬ 
kens of his favor, and by prayer owned his 
dependence upon him. 

The nature he had condescended to assume , 
required these exercises of devotion. If they are 
entered upon reluctantly or proceeded with 


44 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

as a painful task; if we have cold hearts in 
them, and almost faithless, hopeless souls, all 
this is our sinful infirmity, of which Christ was 
in no measure a partaker. His devotions were 
more like the pure, fresh sanctities of Eden, 
where prayer was a delight, meditation was 
repose, nearness to God was meat and drink, 
and the heart-strings beat responsively to the 
grateful music of heaven. He found a sanc¬ 
tuary anywhere—in the temple, in the gar¬ 
den, in the wilderness, on the mountain-side ; 
and in each of these, in communion with his 
Father, he laid up strength for his soul, and 
drew down the blessings God designed to give. 
Prayer, that 

‘ ‘ Motion of a hidden fire, 

That trembles in the breast,” 

was as much a part of his human nature as 
love, pity, joy, or pain. As he could not 
avoid weeping at the grave of Lazarus, or 
feeling love for faithful friends, or sighing in 
spirit at unbelief, or compassionating the mul¬ 
titude in their hunger and the bereaved in 
their distress, so neither could he avoid the 
welling up of those affections which seek their 
gratification in retirement and find their rest 
in God. 


THE rRAYER. 


45 


His prayers were required to obtain the 
blessings sought. “Ask of me,” says the 
Father to the Son, “and I will give thee.” 
Prayer was, therefore, the means by which the 
blessings were bestowed. Christ, as man, could 
not,more than any “mere man,” obtain without 
prayer the things necessary for the carrying out 
of his appointed work. He who, in the strength 
of his divinity, could move the mountains, lay 
the storm, and bind the rebel spirit of man in 
a loving chain, yet prayed for Peter's faith, 
that it might not fail; for the sin of his cruci- 
fiers, that it might be blotted out; and that 
God would make his glory known at the grave 
of Lazarus. The petitions that he offered when 

“ Cold mountains and the midnight air 
Witnessed the fervor of his prayer,” 

were as much needed for the accomplishment 
of our salvation, as the miraculous deeds which 
were done by his hand. He had not only to 
redeem us with his precious blood, but to pray 
that we might be made willing to avail our¬ 
selves of the ransom. Not only had our sins 
to be expiated, but our unbelief to be cured, 
and our antipathies to be overcome. He died 
to accomplish the one; he prayed to effect the 
other. We dare not conjecture what would 


46 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

have been the result if his prayers had been 
omitted; for in the case of the perfect Sav¬ 
iour, his death and prayers were inseparable. 

The prayers of the Saviour also seem to 
have been required, that his pure human spirit 
might be qualified and fitted to go through its 
mighty work in the redemption of mankind. 

When the closing days of his human exist¬ 
ence here were near at hand, we hear him 
send forth the ardent petition, “Father, save 
me from this hour !’ 7 and in his agony in the 
garden these words were uttered with strong 
crying and tears: “If it be possible, let this 
cup pass from me.” The language burns 
with the intensity of the conflict in which 
he was then engaged, and which he felt it was 
in the power of prayer to mitigate, or at least 
to give him strength to endure. His prayer 
was not offered in vain, the words immedi¬ 
ately following, “ there appeared unto him an 
angel from heaven, strengthening him.” 

But there are mysteries here upon which 
we dare not trench. We must not try to 
pierce farther into Grethsemane’s gloom. Let 
us, however, pause long enough beside the 
praying Saviour to learn what a powerful ex¬ 
ercise of the human soul that must be which* 


THE PRAYER. 


47 


could make Christ himself stronger than he 
was; and what a momentous necessity of the 
spiritual life that must be with which even 
Christ himself could not dispense. The period 
was now reached which was the most critical 
and anxious one in his whole pilgrimage upon 
the earth; and therefore he must needs seek 
retirement for prayer. Hence he went up 
into a mountain apart to pray. But who can 
adequately translate those “strongcrying and 
tears? 7 ’ Oh, could we have stood by his side 
on that “holy mount, 77 at that midnight hour, 
we might perchance have heard from him these 
plaintive sounds: “Lord, who hath believed 
our report? I am come unto my own, and 
my own receive me not! I am become a 
stranger unto my brethren; an alien to my 
mother’s children. Consider mine enemies, 
for they are many; and they hate me with a 
cruel hatred! Arise, 0 Lord; let not man 
prevail. Thou that dwellest between the 
cherubim, shine forth! Show me a token for 
good! Father, glorify thy name! 77 

But we may not put words into the Sav¬ 
iour’s mouth at the mercy-seat, save those 
which the Holy Ghost teacheth. He gives us 
the mind of Christ. 


48 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

And Christ must be our pattern, as well 
as our righteousness and joy. Next to “win¬ 
ning Christ and being found in him/ 7 we must 
make it our one great desire and effort through 
life to be like him. Happy are those who thus 
spend the days of their earthly pilgrimage. 
They may be days of suffering, and some of 
them days of darkness, but they are all days 
which will merge into brightness and joy. 

It seems wonderful that Christ should 
pray. He had no sins to be pardoned. He 
had no wants but such as his own power could 
supply; and yet we find him, “in the days of 
his flesh, offering up prayers and supplications 
with strong crying and tears. 77 This betokens 
weakness and need. In “ all things 77 he must 
be made like unto us, 77 that we might have in 
all things a perfect pattern. 

He was a pattern, therefore,, to us, in his 
special seasons of prayer. 

He prayed at his baptism. Prayer and 
baptism, in his case, went together. And the 
ordinances of God’s grace must be sanctified 
to us by prayer. We must not put God 7 s or¬ 
dinances in God’s place. We must not expect 
the tools of themselves to do the work of the 
great Workman. The ordinances are but 


THE PRAYER. 


49 


channels of grace through which God conveys 
blessings to our souls. The blessing upon the 
sermon must be sought at home, and then in 
the sanctuary again, before the sermon begins, 
or it may be to us little more than a “ sound¬ 
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal.’’ It is the 
praying soul that feeds upon the Saviour “in 
the heart with thanksgiving.” It is the pray¬ 
ing mind that drinks of the Saviour’s precious 
blood at the Lord’s table. All others take the 
bread and wine, and nothing else. They go 
away as they came, without a blessing. 

Christ offered up special prayer before he 
commissioned his apostles and sent them forth 
to preach the gospel. It was an important 
and serious business; and before he engaged 
in it, we read that “he went into a mountain 
to pray, and continued all night in prayer to 
God.” 

“And when it was day,” before any busi¬ 
ness or interruption intervened, “he called 
his disciples, and of them he chose twelve.” 
This is the example that he hath left us. It 
would impress upon us this lesson—that we 
ought to abound in prayer before engaging in 
or entering upon any new or important busi¬ 
ness. As it is superstitious to expect ordi- 
3 


Holy Mount. 


50 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

nances and sacraments to benefit us by any 
power in themselves, so it is even worse to 
expect our attention and sagacity to do it. 
All things are in God’s hand. He is con¬ 
cerned in all our affairs, and he will be con¬ 
cerned in them. He either gives us success 
in them or baffles and disappoints us. Our 
wisdom and industry against the course of his 
providence, are mere straws against the wind’s 
course. They can do nothing but break and 
be swept away. Then let us think of this 
* in the commencement of our undertakings. 
When, like the blessed Saviour, we turn aside 
and pray before we begin, then we may enter 
upon them with a consciousness that God is 
above ; and the thought of this gives calmness, 
courage, and strength while pursuing them. 
“ Acknowledge me,” he says, “ in all thy 
ways.” We have acknowledged him, and let 
the issue be what it will, all will be well. He 
will bring to pass the issue that -will be best 
for us. 

Other special seasons of prayer in which 
Jesus should be a pattern to us, as when our 
friends are in peculiar danger or sorrow, or 
when trouble is expected to come or is really 
upon us, might with profit be considered; but 


THE PRAYER. 


51 


this season of exceeding enjoyment and honor 
upon which we are dwelling must suffice. 

Jesus knew that he was to be transfigured : 
and therefore w r e have it recorded that “He 
took Peter and John and James and went up 
into a mountain to pray.” He would have the 
pleasure and glory that was coming upon him 
come upon him praying. 1 ‘ And as he prayed,” 
it is added, “ the fashion of his countenance 
was altered, and his raiment was white and glis¬ 
tering.” His praying was an acknowledg¬ 
ment that the honor coming on him was the 
gift of God ; and it was an indication also that 
a creature of God needs help from Him, to 
enable him to bear honor and greatness. The 
honors as well as the sorrows of his humiliation 
he was too weak, in his human nature, to bear, 
and therefore he supplicates strength from 
above to sustain him under them. This teaches 
us how hard it is, as the old divines express 
it, to “carry a full cup.” Nothing is more 
dangerous to man than honor or prosperity. 
Pride of heart is often excited and fostered by 
it. An undue love of honor or prosperity is 
called into exercise by it. The soul is 
absorbed in its enjoyment of it. There is a 
contentedness with the mercy, and a forget^ 


52 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

fulness of God. The soul becomes oblivious 
to its real station and duties in the world. 
Peter experienced this. He was so absorbed 
in delight at the vision of his Master’s glory 
that he forgot every thing else. 

But turn to the Master himself. Unutter¬ 
able delight must have filled his soul at that 
hour. It must have been exceedingly sweet, 
in his human nature, to talk, probably for the 
first time in that nature, with glorified men ; 
it must have been an earnest and foretaste of 
the blessedness and glory that awaited him 
hereafter. 

Yet he was not absorbed in the pleasure he 
was enjoying. His great work on earth was 
still on his thoughts ; his great business on earth 
was still foremost in his mind. Therefore he 
did not hear from his heavenly visitants of the 
glory of that world from which he came, and 
the rest that remaineth there at last for the 
wearied sufferer on earth, nor did they tell him 
of the joy and the crown that awaited him 
when his bitter cup of suffering should be drank ; 
but they “spoke of the decease which he 
should accomplish at Jerusalem.” 

We may not fear mercies, but we ought to 
fear the receiving and enjoying of them with- 


THE PRAYER. 


63 


out prayer. Many a Christian’s mercies are 
embittered to him because he did not receive 
and enjoy them prayerfully. Mercies are not 
only a fresh call from God for thanksgiving 
and praise, but for earnest supplication. A 
weak, sinful creature is not to be trusted alone 
with favors from God. His prayer should be, 
Give me thy Spirit, and never take it from 
me. Perhaps no Christian spends as much 
time in prayer as he ought, or follows closely 
enough the example of Christ in having spe¬ 
cial seasons of prayer. . 

If prayer be the strength of the soul, the 
repose of the heart, the antidote to the world, 
the dread of the evil one; if the flesh is mor¬ 
tified by it, and the cross endured through it; 
if sanctification is advanced by it, and the 
Spirit of God speaks through its voice ; yea, if 
heaven itself is to be entered as its last 
breath dies away—why do we pray so lan¬ 
guidly and so little? We pray so languidly 
because so little. We do not realize as we 
ought the profit there is in thus serving the 
Lord. Oh, if we are weary with praying with 
our Master for one hour in the garden, how 
can we be fitted for never-ending service with 
those who stand before the throne ? 


54 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

If ever we mean to see God’s face in joy, 
we must know what prayer, private , personal 
prayer is. If we are of those who go to God’s 
house, and go daily to their business, and see 
their fellow-creatures and friends, yea, per¬ 
haps their very children suffering, or are 
brought into suffering themselves, and yet 
none of these things ever, send them to the 
throne of grace ; if we have the stiff, stubborn 
knee and the unimploring heart amid them 
all—can all this be right? A praying Mas¬ 
ter—a prayerless disciple ! A praying Sav¬ 
iour—a prayerless sinner! A God incarnate 
praying—walking the earth praying; a sin¬ 
ning, weak, and needy child of the earth, 
walking that same earth upright, never bend¬ 
ing before his God—without prayer! Can 
that course of life be safe ? Does it meet the 
approval of God ? Can it be well at last with 
that sinner’s soul ? 


Luke 9 :29 : “And as he prayed, the fashion of his coun¬ 
tenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glis¬ 
tering.” 

Mark 9:3: “And his raiment became shining, exceed¬ 
ing white as snow ; so as no fuller on earth can white them.” 

Matt. 17:2: “And was transfigured before them: and 
his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as 
the light. ” 
























































































































































- 
























V. 


Jhe 


Jransfiguration. 


“ Christ, whose glory fills the skies; 
Christ, the true and only Light; 
Sun of righteousness, arise, 

Triumph o’er the shades of night; 
More and more thyself display, 
Shining to the perfect day.” 



ET us now ascend the hill, and 
see the great sight which the Lord 
our God will show us. The Son of 
God is on that height; his three 
loved disciples are beside him. They 
have walked together up the toilsome way, 
and now the four stand on the distant summit. 
How grand the scene! The dome of heaven 
spreads out above them with its worlds of 
light and beauty. In the west are seen the 
dark outlines of Carmel standing against the 
sky; in yonder basin rests the placid sea of 
Tiberias; and far below, on those neighboring 
plains, shepherds watch their flocks. 

But anon Jesus kneels in prayer to his 
father. Beneath the clear vault of heaven, 
3* 



58 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

and amid the stillness of the night, he would 
commune with Him. With Jesus, the spiritual 
outweighs the carnal, the divine the human; 
the temporal is lost in the eternal. No wea¬ 
riness, no fatigue, no hour can hinder his 
appointed work. 

And as he knelt in supplications, and from 
his lips there went forth such utterances as 
never man spoke, lo, he is transfigured! What 
a sublime scene is passing before the disciples 
as that Nazarene pours out his heart to God! 
The Son of Mary, the carpenter of Nazareth, 
the wanderer, with whom they ate and drank 
and travelled on foot many a weary mile, in 
all the intimacy of companions and friends, 
begins to change before their eyes. Over his 
coarse garments is spread a strange light, 
brightening into intenser beauty, till his whole 
frame glows with a celestial splendor. The 
man has put on the God. He from whom men 
hid their faces, was now so arrayed in super¬ 
human brightness, that they would be com¬ 
pelled to veil them. 

All the evangelists agree that this change 
was sudden, unearthly, glorious. Every ves¬ 
tige of humiliation was, for the moment, laid 
aside and lost ; the Star of Bethlehem eclipsed 


THE TRANSFIGURATION. 


59 


tlie sun in his strength • the “Root out of the 
dry ground ” towered above the cedars of Leb¬ 
anon ; the form of a servant was superseded 
by the dignity of the Heir of all things ; and 
the outcast and scorned of men appeared in 
all the effulgence and light of God. 

His form, which had been bent under a 
load of sorrow, now erected itself, like the 
palm-tree from pressure, and he became as a 
pillar in the temple of our God. His brow 
•expanded, its wrinkles of care fled, and the 
sweating drops of his climbing toil were trans¬ 
muted into sparks of glory. The Divinity 
from within threw out upon his manhood a 
holy splendor. His nature remained the same 
as it was before, but that nature appeared in 
a glorified form. An upper garment of glory 
was thrown over the tabernacle of flesh, in 
which for a season he had been pleased to 
enshrine and conceal his godhead. Heaven 
was written upon his countenance, and each 
opening pore beamed with indwelling Deity. 
Meekness gave way to majesty, sadness to 
dazzling glory, the look of pity to the gran¬ 
deur of a God. 

How this change was effected, we would 
not curiously inquire. Of one thing we may 


60 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

be sure : there was no change in the bodily 
substance of our Lord, and no destruction of 
the proper attributes of humanity, because he 
lived some time after in the flesh, and in the 
flesh had still to die. 

The whole scene was a faint and broken 
type of the same Jesus in his glorified state : 
as he was seen by one of these three chosen 
witnesses in the glorious vision of Patmos 
afterwards ; as the eye of faith and love and 
holy fervor can behold him now, “walking in 
the midst of the seven golden candlesticks/’ 
flashing the fire of his all-consuming eye upon 
the worship of the dissembler and the false¬ 
hearted ; but laying his right hand upon the 
penitent and the burdened and the trembling, 
saying, “ Fear not!” 

“The fashion of .his countenance was al¬ 
tered.” Not in its lineaments or features, but 
with rays of glory, beaming forth in mild and 
holy lustre. That sad and solemn counte¬ 
nance, which had been so often seen bending 
over the couch of the dying, and entering the 
door of the huts of poverty, and passing 
through the streets of Jerusalem, and pausing 
weary by the wayside, ay, even bedewing the 
grave with tears—that countenance now glows 


THE TRANSFIGURATION. 61 

with a rapturous brightness. The still radi¬ 
ance of heaven sits on that serene brow, and 
a strange beauty has glowed over that face 
which was so lately furrowed with care and 
wrinkled with sorrow. He is so dazzlingly 
refulgent, that no man could behold him, 
except as shrouded in his manhood, and live. 
And that same brightness, which so illumines 
the celestial temple as to render all created 
light unnecessary, will destroy all his adver¬ 
saries at his second coming. 

“ And his face did shine as the sun.” The 
face of Moses, after his communings with God, 
shone so that the people could not look upon 
his face. But the resplendent rays which dis¬ 
tinguished the face of Moses, were borrowed— 
the effect of converse with God. But the rays 
that emanate from Christ are like those of the 
sun underived; and though since he became 
a man they have been covered with his flesh, 
as with a cloud, they now shine forth in power 
and glory. To Paul, on his way to Damascus, 
he appears as a light above the brightness of 
the sun. To the beloved disciple in Patmos, 
he was revealed as “ the sun in his strength,” 
shining in his meridian splendor ; and when 
we come to the description of the heavenly 


62 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

city, where the light of the material sun is not 
needed, it is because the Lamb is the light of 
it, and its God its glory. 

No wonder then that he is called “ the Sun 
of righteousness,” for in that face we discover, 
as in a mirror, the very image of God. Such 
love, such kindness, such meekness, such gen¬ 
tleness, and yet such majesty and glory, that 
heaven is unveiled before us in his counte¬ 
nance. Bright in himself, glorious in his per¬ 
son, he communicates his light to the world 
around. Like some glorious luminary in the 
morning of creation, shining in its pathway of 
glory, so* He arose over the dark surface of a 
troubled world, scattering its gloom, dispelling 
its darkness, and causing the light of the glori¬ 
ous gospel to shine in the hearts of his people. 

“Lord, lift thou up the light of thy coun¬ 
tenance upon me,” said David ; and with my 
spiritual firmament lit up with its golden light, 
I shall march under the shinings of thy coun¬ 
tenance to a city which is covered with a flood 
of glory. Yes, let this face, which did “shine 
as the sun,” shed its purely celestial lustre 
upon a soul, and the eye of that soul will see 
before it an illuminated grave and a lit-up 
eternity ; the valley of the shadow of death 


THE TRANSFIGURATION. 63 

will blaze as though brightened with myriads 
of torches of the heavenly host, and the far- 
spreadings of the heavenly land will appear 
before it in all its distinctness and in all its 
glory. 

It is also declared by the evangelists, that 
“His raiment became shining and glistering— 
white as the light—exceeding white as snow, 
so as no fuller on earth can white them.” 
Whatever belongs to Jesus, partakes of his 
glory. His very raiment, wrapped in a shower 
of radiance, becomes whiter than mortal man 
could make it. The very robes which he wore 
became shining, to betoken his glory; became 
white, to denote his purity, spotless as the 
untrodden snow. His apparel was not em¬ 
blematic of terror or of war, as when he came 
“from Edom, with dyed garments from Boz- 
rah,” but of innocency and purity. When 
Daniel beheld him, as “the Ancient of days,” 
his garments were white as snow ; and when 
John saw him in Patmos, “his head and his 
hairs were white as wool;” when he is repre¬ 
sented as going forth in apocalyptic vision, he 
is seated on a white horse ; and when he comes 
to judge the quick and the dead, he shall be 
seated on a white throne ; and when he be- 


64 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

stows the rewards of grace upon the overcom¬ 
ing ones, he shall give them a white stone, 
and clothe them with white raiment, and they 
shall “walk with him in white, for they are 
worthy.” 

All these are representations of the unsul¬ 
lied purity of his nature as the Holy One of 
God; of his perfect righteousness as the Just 
One of Israel; of his personal merit as the 
Mediator between God and man, who by his 
death has opened up a way of access into the 
holiest of all;. of the High Priest who became 
us, who was “holy, harmless, undefiled, and 
separate from sinners ;” and who addresses 
this language to each sinner : “I counsel thee 
to buy of me—white raiment that thou may- 
est be clothed, and that the shame of thy 
nakedness do not appear.” 

What a wondrous sight is this on Tabor! 
Garments of light, a countenance of light, the 
presence of the glory of the Lord of light! All 
our explanations of this wondrous scene are 
but as the lispings of infancy. We can only 
wonder and adore, “beholding his glory,” and 
seek to learn the lessons which his altered 
countenance, his shining face, and his white 
and glistering raiment were intended to teach. 


“ Sound the voice through all the ages, 

Man has sinned, and man must die 
God has spoken in his justice— 

Can the God of justice lie? 

‘ ‘ Love takes up the challenge, pleading, 

God is love, and God hath won 
Pardon through the blood-atoning 
Of his well-beloved Son. 

* ‘ God is Judge, and God the ransom, 

Heaven and earth in one rejoice ; 

Hushed the earthquake, past the tempest; 

Present is the still small voice.” 

the case of the Saviour, the 
Transfiguration was well calculated to 
prepare him for meeting and encounter¬ 
ing the sufferings he was soon to endure . 
Christ was truly man as well as truly 
God. He had all the feelings of humanity 
purified from all that was selfish or sinful. 
That he was susceptible of sorrow, we have 
ample proof in the groans which he uttered, 
in the tears which he shed, and in the lines of 
care which deeply marked his countenance. 


66 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

He had, as the Son of God, an accurate 
foreknowledge of every scene of woe through 
which he had to pass ; and though he had 
estimated the sum of these sufferings, and was 
strong in his own energies and resources, and 
relied with unbending confidence on the prom¬ 
ised aid and support of his heavenly Father, 
yet there were moments when his heart sunk 
within him, and when every feeling of his 
nature recoiled at the prospect of his fearful 
agony and ignominious death, and even an 
angel came from heaven to strengthen him. 
He required therefore to be armed with forti¬ 
tude to meet the evils he was to endure; and 
nothing could have been better adapted to 
effect this than the Transfiguration on the holy 
mount. The glory with which he was there 
encircled would cheer and elevate him in the 
prospect of his coming agonies. 

Never, during the previous part of his 
humiliation, had such honors been conferred 
upon the Son of God. Now “ his face did 
shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as 
the light.” This to him must have been a 
most refreshing foretaste of that glory on 
which he was to enter when his sufferings 
were terminated and the victory was won; 


ITS USE TO THE SAVIOUR. 67 

and the remembrance of this scene on the holy 
mount would nerve him for the endurance, as 
he experienced the fearful tortures of the cru¬ 
cifix and felt the hidings of his Father’s face. 
It was “the joy that was set before him,” of 
which this mountain glory was an earnest and 
a pledge, that strengthened him to endure the 
cross and despise the shame. 

And if our Lord, in order to meet the suc¬ 
ceeding scenes of his life—dark Gethsemane, 
and yet darker Calvary—refreshed himself by 
assuming for an hour the splendor of his ador¬ 
able divinity, that he might be the better pre¬ 
pared to enter upon the trial which was to come 
upon him, how thankful should we be that 
every thing he said and did was for the good 
of man. He had set his heart upon man’s sal¬ 
vation, and he would not fail or be discouraged 
until that salvation was accomplished. What¬ 
ever he needed he would acquire; whatever 
joy or glory or strength was necessary to help 
him onward to the cross, he would seek to 
obtain them by prayer. He knew the truth 
contained in these lines of the poet: 

“Prayer makes the darkened cloud withdraw ; 

Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw, 

Gives exercise to faith and love, 

Brings every blessing from above.” 


68 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

His subsequent agony in Gethsemane would 
have been still more overpowering, had the 
prayer on the holy mount not been offered and 
the transfigured glory not enjoyed; but hav¬ 
ing offered up the one and enjoyed the other, 
he now goes on to meet his sufferings. 

Let us follow his example. Sufferings are 
before us; how shall we meet them but in the 
strength of God ? Sorrows are before us; 
how shall we be comforted in them but by the 
consolations of the God of all comfort? Death 
is before us ; how shall we meet it but in the 
white raiment of Immanuel? and how shall we 
obtain these but by prayer, by faith, by a 
holy consecration of ourselves to God ? 

As Jesus prayed the fashion of his counte¬ 
nance was altered. Before he cried he was 
answered, and while he was yet speaking he 
was heard. It was a blessed interruption to 
prayer which thus came upon him ; and, thanks 
be to God, such transfiguring manifestations 
are not quite strangers upon the earth now. 
God sometimes, out of the deepest depths, and 
out of groanings which cannot be uttered, 
transports his children suddenly to a kind of 
heaven upon earth, and their soul is made as 
the chariots of Aminadab. Their prayers 


ITS USE TO THE SAVIOUR. 69 

bring down such light and strength and holy 
gladness as make their face to shine, adorning 
them with a kind of celestial radiance. 

Let it be ours to cast ourselves at the 
mercy-seat into the arms of this precious Sav¬ 
iour, and he will lead us to Tabor, and from 
Tabor to Gethsemane, to Calvary, and through 
the Jordan to glory. 


“What hill is like to Tabor hill in beauty and in fame? 

For there, in sad days of his flesh, o’er Christ a glory came ; 

And light o’erflowed him like a sea, and raised his shining brow, 
And the voice came forth which bade all worlds the Son of God 
avow.” . 

? g>#N every action of our Lord’s life 
there is set forth, as it were in shadow, 
some doctrine, some duty, some con¬ 
solation, or some hope for the edifi¬ 
cation and instruction of the church 

of God. 

Christ was always teaching—in the humil¬ 
iations of Bethlehem, in the obscurity of Naz¬ 
areth, in the solitudes of the wilderness, in 
the agonies of Gethsemane, and in the mental 
darkness of the cross. All his sufferings were 
sermons, and all his miracles a gospel, which 
they that run might read. 

In the outward history of Jesus we have 
the best commentary on the great mystery of 
his twofold nature. In that history we have 


ITS USE TO THE DISCIPLES. 71 

the clearest witness to the fact that he was 
both God and man.^ Our minds, as we read 
the narrative of his life, get possessed of the 
fact that “God was manifest in the flesh.” He 
hungered who fed the multitude ; he slept who 
hushed the storm; he received strength from 
an angel at whose feet angels bow. He who 
stood on the holy mount, with a countenance 
radiant as the sun, and with raiment white as 
the light, not long after was “lifted up” be¬ 
tween heaven and earth, a spectacle to angels 
and to men, fulfilling all that Moses and the 
prophets had foretold of the “decease which 
he should accomplish at Jerusalem.” 

The entire scene of the transfiguration 
must have been most encouraging to the disciples 
and most assuring to their faith. Christ goes 
up prepared for a beatific vision; in calm and 
conscious majesty puts on his robes of light, 
as much as mortal eyes could bear to see of 
the image of the infinite and invisible God; 
gives audience to two glorified spirits, till 
God the Father, by a voice from the excellent 
glory testifying to the greater beauty of the 
Son, recalls the servants to their rest. 

All this glorious manifestation served to 
impress the disciples with the unmistakable 


72 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

divinity of the Saviour. For the most part 
he had hitherto shrouded his divinity in his 
suffering humanity. He had been seen as 
“ the Man of sorrows and acquainted with 
griefbut now divinity bursts forth in over¬ 
whelming effulgence. His whole life, so unos¬ 
tentatious, so unkinglike, so sorrowful, is now 
covered with the glory of heaven and the 
manifestation of his Father s perfect love. 
There shines in him and about him such an 
effulgence of glory, that the disciples could 
not for a moment entertain the shadow of a 
doubt that he was what he claimed to be, the 
Christ, the Son of God. 

He had before this revealed rays of his 
exalted nature. From his mouth there had 
fallen words which confounded them. By his 
hands works had been wrought which had 
perplexed and bewildered them, and in his 
serene countenance they had read his unof¬ 
fending character. But now from his whole 
frame there goes forth a blaze- of glory ; yea, 
his humble Nazarene robe, the very robe 
which again and again had brought upon him 
the eye of reproach, shines, glistens with an 
effulgence brighter than the noonday sun. 
All this taught the disciples to be more fully 


ITS USE TO THE DISCIPLES 73 

alive to the dignity and responsibility of their 
calling. It put them in possession of a wit¬ 
ness to his divinity which should lead them 
patiently to endure every reproach, suffer 
every buffeting, and which would make them 
strong and triumphant in death, be it at the 
stake or upon the cross. 

And the memory of the disciples treasured 
up this testimony among its living things. It 
made delusion or deceit as to their master’s 
mission impossible. “We have not followed 
cunningly devised fables,” said Peter many 
years afterwards, “when we made known unto 
you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his maj¬ 
esty.” 

Again, the sight of their transfigured Mas¬ 
ter would rectify the misconceptions they had 
formed of his character, prevent that despond¬ 
ency which the announcement of his death 
had a tendency to produce, and thus qualify 
them for the labors they had to prosecute and 
the trials they had to endure. 

The disciples, with the rest of the Jewish 
nation, had formed very erroneous ideas of 
the Saviour's person and work. They sup¬ 
posed that he would appear as the asserter of 
4 


Holy Moi 


74 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

his country’s rights, the champion of her lib¬ 
erty, and the restorer of her faded glory. 
When they witnessed him apprehended, heard 
him condemned, beheld him treated as the 
vilest felon, and saw him nailed to the accur¬ 
sed tree, the spell by which they had been 
bound to him would be broken, the dream of 
their bliss would come to an end, and they 
would feel all the grief, shame, and despair of 
men whose highest hopes had been blighted, 
and whose fairest prospects had been covered 
with darkness. 

And what could be better fitted to rectify 
their false conceptions of their Master’s char¬ 
acter, prepare their minds for witnessing his 
suffering, and prevent them from despondency 
in case of his death, than this glorious vision 
u-pon the heights of Tabor. That bright light 
which encircled their Master might well calm 
their fears and lull their suspicions, when he 
would come to be encompassed on Calvary. 
How could they imagine that the person whose 
countenance they had seen shining with a heav¬ 
enly glory, and whose raiment was white and 
glistering, would be forsaken by God for ever? 
His character might be aspersed and loaded 
with the deepest infamy, and he himself doomed 


ITS USE TO THE DISCIPLES. 75 

to the death of the vilest slave ; but could they 
entertain for a moment the thought that God 
would suffer one so related to him, and so 
dearly beloved by him, to remain under an 
eternal eclipse ? Was it not more reasonable 
and just to conclude that he would emerge 
from the darkness that surrounded his death, 
and shine forth in a glory far surpassing in 
brilliancy even that with which he was irradi¬ 
ated on the holy mount ? Thus, while wit¬ 
nessing the sufferings of the Saviour and their 
end, they might have felt the keenest grief; 
yet the joy of hope would dwell in their hearts, 
and peace in believing would fill their minds. 

The glorious manifestation on Tabor would 
serve also to impress upon the disciples the 
illustrious majesty with which he will appear 
for ever in the midst of the universal church. 
In the conversation with his disciples record¬ 
ed in the preceding verses of the gospel nar¬ 
rative, Jesus had told them that the Son of 
man would come in the glory of his Father, 
with the holy angels, and would reward every 
man according to his works. The transfigura¬ 
tion was a picture or exemplification of this. 

The appearance of Christ, when he will 
come the second time, will be that of God. 


76 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Language is inadequate to express the splen¬ 
dor and majesty which will adorn his face, 
encircle his person, and make his way one of 
dazzling brightness and terrible power. He 
will not come as the babe of Bethlehem, as 
the despised Nazarene, as the man of sorrows, 
as the meek and lowly Jesus, but as the “ King 
of kings and Lord of lords .’ 7 He will appear 
with all the ensigns of majesty and regal dig¬ 
nity that become his character as Judge of 
the quick and of the dead. His first coming 
was in the likeness of sinful flesh; his second 
coming will be in the glory of God. At his 
first coming he w T as attended by a few poor 
and despised fishermen; at his second coming 
he will be attended by a retinue of myriads of 
his saints and by all his holy angels. All 
created lights will be quenched by the bright¬ 
ness of his coming. “ The earth shall quake 
before-him, the heavens shall tremble, the sun 
and moon shall be darkened, and the stars 
shall withdraw their shining, for the day of 
the Lord is great and very terrible, and who 
can abide it ? 77 

We shall see his coming in power and 
great glory. Will it be in joy and gladness, 
with thanksgivings and hallelujahs? or will it 


ITS USE TO THE DISCIPLES. 77 

be with sorrow and dismay, with lamentations 
and gnashing of teeth ? 

If we would be like him in his transfigured 
glory, see him with delight, be glorified with 
him, and abide with him for ever, then we 
must “not be conformed to this world, but 
be transformed by the renewing of our minds, 
that we may prove what is that good and 
acceptable and perfect will of God;” and thus 
we shall bear his image; for in that bright 
scene of Tabor and in the person of the trans¬ 
figured Saviour we have an evidence of the 
nature of our glorified humanity. 

“We know not what we shall be, but we 
know that when Christ shall appear we shall 
be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” 
The members will be as the Head, the chil¬ 
dren as the Heir and elder Brother; their 
vile bodies changed, purified, fashioned like 
unto his body, at whose superhuman bright¬ 
ness, the disciples “ were sore afraid.” That 
body of Christ which coruscated on Tabor 
with the bright rays of heavenly splendor is 
the model after which our vile bodies shall be 
formed. 

It did not take long to rear that fabric of 
glory on the mount. It may be that in an 


78 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

instant of time Christ was changed into that 
glory of Tabor. In like manner his people 
shall arise and “put on their beautiful gar¬ 
ments” “in the twinkling of an eye;” their 
faces shall shine as the sun, and their raiment, 
borrowed from Christ’s spiritual wardrobe, 
shall be white and glistering. His transfigu¬ 
ration is the pledge and emblem of the future 
glorification of the saints. He is their pat¬ 
tern and example, both in their sanctification 
and glorification. They shall be like him in 
spirituality, like him in holiness, like him in 
immortality. The glorified body of Christ is 
the most distinguished object in the universe 
of God, the purest, the most refined, the most 
illustrious; and yet this is the exact model 
after which the bodies of the saints shall be 
fashioned. There will be no touch of frailty 
or infirmity upon them, no dimness of eye, no 
deafness of ear, no feebleness of limb; all will 
be perfection, all will be beauty. All the 
parts will be brought together into harmony 
and perfect accordance, and this spiritual body 
be eminently fitted to become the companion 
of the perfected soul in travelling the path of 
immortal blessedness. 

It will be like an exquisite picture set in 


ITS USE TO THE DISCIPLES. 79 

a jewelled frame. Who can describe such a 
change? Words fail, and even thought tires 
in its effort to conceive, and is lost in antici¬ 
pation. “We shall bear,” says the apostle, 
“the image of the heavenly.” These clods of 
earth shall become swift as lightning, more 
lovely than angels in glory, and bright as the 
meridian sun; but “it doth not yet appear 
what we shall be.” Could we borrow the lan¬ 
guage of Paradise itself, could we speak with 
the tongues of angels, language would be in¬ 
sufficient. “It doth not yet appear what we 
shall be,” even to our imagination, however 
vivid and however fruitful in creating lively 
images of glory and of bliss, for “heart hath 
not conceived the things that God has pre¬ 
pared for those who love him.” “ It doth not 
yet appear what we shall be; but we know 
that when he shall appear we shall be like 
him, for we shall see him as he is.” As “his 
face did shine as the sun,” so shall the right¬ 
eous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of 
their Father. Their face shall be radiant in 
light and beauty, and their countenance shall 
be bathed in rich and everlasting lustre. 

In the greatness of their number, in the 
beauty of their character, in the perfection of 


80 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

their resurrection bodies, in the splendor of 
their abode, and in the ecstacy of their joy, 
they shall glorify Jesus for ever and ever. As 
he was robed in white when he appeared in 
his garments of glory on Tabor, so shall they 
walk with him in white. “Who are these 
arrayed in white robes, and whence came 
they ?” They are the washed in his blood, the 
purified by his Spirit, his followers on earth, 
his companions in glory. 

Oh, who can tell the blessedness of these 
words—the fullness of joy, the beauty of holi¬ 
ness, the fervor of love, the intimacy of com¬ 
panionship? the deep, deep meaning of our 
Lord’s words: “Father, I will that they also 
whom thou hast given me, be with me where 
I am, that they may behold my glory?” But 
such honor have all his saints. “I shall be 
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.” 



Matt. 17:3: “And behold, there appeared unto them 
Moses and Elias talkimg with him.” 

Mark 9:4: “And there appeared unto them Elias with 
Moses : and they were talking with Jesus.” 

Luke 9:30: “And behold, there talked with him two 
men, which w r ere Moses and Elias. ” 



4 * 





























- * 













* 












' 














• — 



































































. 











































































♦ 1 • 









VIII. 


"j^HE jplEAYENLY y ISITANTS. 

“Come, ye saints, look here, and wonder! 

Come, behold what love could do 
Gaze upon the Victim yonder! 

Jesus suffered there for you. 

Bid adieu to low desire; 

Here let earthly hope expire.” 

v HERE is no book which affords such 

a variety of interesting statements 
Cofi) as the word of God. And perhaps no 
incident in the life of the Saviour fur¬ 
nishes more rich and varied lessons 
than that of the transfiguration. 

We have already ascended the mountain 
with the Saviour and his three favorite disci¬ 
ples, while the shades of evening were gath¬ 
ering around them. We have knelt with them 
apart as they engaged in prayer ; and have 
beheld that, as the Saviour prayed, he was 
transfigured, the fashion of his countenance 
was altered, his face shining as the sun, and 
his raiment glistering and white as snow. 
And now “behold!” another feature is added 


84 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

to this wondrous scene, to which the Spirit of 
inspiration calls our attention, and which we 
shall find worthy of our prayerful meditation. 

The company around Jesus is increased. 
Chosen witnesses from the realms of glory 
have appeared. Two eminent saints, Moses 
and Elias, who for ages have been enjoying 
the happiness of the celestial world, have de¬ 
scended, and, arrayed in the splendid costume 
of the better country, are seen in earnest con¬ 
versation with Immanuel. The King of glory 
has assumed on earth his robes of state—the 
court-dress of his own palace ; and these cour¬ 
tiers of heaven, arrayed in shining raiment, 
have come to enjoy a private audience. 

And who is this Moses? and who is this 
Elias ? The inspired writer tells us. They 
are “men”—men who have “appeared in 
glory.” Our curiosity is excited as this fact 
is announced; and we inquire, Why is this 
delegation f rom the heavenly world to the mount 
of transfiguration composed of u men f and not 
of angels ? 

There is a wondrous beauty and propriety 
in all the proceedings of God. What a suita¬ 
bleness in the selection of men to be, on this 
occasion, the visitants and strengtheners of 


THE HEAVENLY VISITANTS. 85 

our Lord! Men are more intimately related 
to Christ than angels. Both are, "indeed, his 
creatures and his ministering servants; but 
before the foundations of the earth were laid, 
his delights were with the sons of men; and 
when he came to redeem, “he took not on him 
the nature of angels, but the seed of Abra¬ 
ham.” And now that this human nature which 
he had assumed was transfigured, it was meet 
that men—those who had partaken of this 
flesh and blood—should be called from the 
skies and appeal' with him in glory. 

Nor could the sight of angels have yielded 
such consolation to the disciples as the appear¬ 
ance of men in a state of glory. How far more 
refreshing to the disciples—to those wearied 
with the cares and labors and toils of earth— 
to have a glimpse of those who had passed 
through great tribulation, and were now wear¬ 
ing the crown, than to behold a company of 
shining ones who had kept their first estate, 
and had always beheld the face of their Father 
in heaven! 1 

Besides, the appearance of men in glory 
presented both an argument and an illustra¬ 
tion'of that glorious change which shall pass 
upon the body of the redeemed at the last 


86 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

day—an argument and an illustration of which 
the disciples in after life made ample use, both 
in their preaching and in their writings, to 
instruct, exhort, and comfort God s children 
in all their trials, and to cheer them on their 
way to glory. 

But why, out of all the innumerable com¬ 
pany of the faithful of other generations, were 
these two only selected to appear with Christ 
here in glory ? 

To such a question, both Moses and Elias 
would doubtless at once reply: “ Even so, 
Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” 
But as God, in every act of his sovereignty, 
has good, wise, and holy reasons for his do¬ 
ings, he may have chosen these two from all 
the white-robed throng to come to Tabor be¬ 
cause they alone of all flesh had beheld God 
in his all-compelling might. Before them 
alone he had passed in the whirlwind and in 
the fire. To them alone he had been revealed 
as the long-suffering, the merciful and gra¬ 
cious One. 

In their earthly course, they had also been 
eminent types of Christ. Moses and Elias had 
both, like Jesus, fasted'forty days and forty 
nights in the wilderness. Like him they had 


THE HEAVENLY VISITANTS. 87 

opened heaven’s storehouse to supply the peo¬ 
ple with bread. They had wrought miracles 
like him—they in the name of God; he in his 
own. Like him, they were very jealous for 
the honor of the Lord of hosts. Like him, 
they had endured shame and scorn in the de¬ 
livery of their respective messages to the world. 
Like him, they had chosen rather to suffer af¬ 
fliction with the people of God than to enjoy 
the pleasures of sin for a season. And like 
him, they were conveyed to the mansions of 
immortality in a way which exempted them 
from the common lot of mortals. “In all 
things it behooved him to be made like unto 
his brethren.” And here on the holy mount, 
the type and the great Antitype stand face to 
face. ' 

Moses and Elias appear, we conceive, on 
Tabor, chiefly in their representative character. 

Mosqs the representative of the law ; Elias 
the representative of the prophets. The Jews 
divided their Scriptures into two great parts— 
the law and the prophets ; and here Moses 
appears in behalf of the one, and Elias in be¬ 
half of the other. 

Moses in behalf of the law. He who had 
been dead about 1,500 years, and who had 


88 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

been employed as the first penman to write 
the volume of inspiration; he who had deso¬ 
lated Egypt, turning its waters into blood and 
smiting it with all plagues until it was utterly 
laid waste; he who had led the chosen people 
of God out of the land of their bondage, whose 
face shone on Horeb with a reflected splendor 
when the law was proclaimed on Sinai, and 
convulsed nature attested the presence of 
God—Moses, into whose hands had been giv¬ 
en the law, as it came fresh from the finger of 
God written on two tables of stone, and who 
had been the mediator, on that occasion, be¬ 
tween God and his people—Moses, who had 
spoken and written and prophesied of Christ 
and his decease while upon the earth—Moses, 
the enforcer of the moral law, which showed 
that man must die if its commands were not 
fulfilled—Moses, the giver of the ceremonial 
law, which showed that, through the shedding 
of blood, there might be remission of sin— 
even this Moses himself has come, and points 
to Christ about to die at Jerusalem as “the 
end of the law for righteousness to every 
one that believeth”—even this Moses has* ap¬ 
peared to minister to that holy One in whom 
was the fulfilment of all the institutions of the 


THE HEAVENLY VISITANTS. 


89 


law—to lay down all his authority at the feet 
of Jesus, to testify to his Messialiship, and to 
give homage to him as the world’s great Law¬ 
giver whose commands must be obeyed, and 
the Redeemer by whom only man can be 
saved. Yes, this deliverer out of Egypt, this 
great lawgiver in the wilderness, this media¬ 
tor between God and a rebellious people, has 
come to bear testimony to a greater Deliverer 
from a worse calamity, to the Mediator of a 
better covenant, and to the Founder of a no¬ 
bler and complete law. 

He who had once for the sake of Christ, 
turned his back upon Egypt, “ esteeming the 
reproach of Christ greater riches than the 
treasures of Egypt,” now looked upon that 
very Saviour who was once but dimly dis¬ 
cerned by his faith, and as he looked, he 
surely must have felt that he had done well 
in the sacrifice of all that Egypt could offer, 
and that for him indeed there was a “great 
recompense of reward.” 

Oh, if it could have been desired that any 
one should come down from heaven to bear 
such testimony to Jesus, who so fit as Moses ? 
Considering the prejudices of the Jews in his 
favor, and the mistakes into which even Chris- 


90 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUJST. 

tians fall respecting the law, it was both most 
suitable and most instructive for Moses him¬ 
self to come and give his testimony to Jesus 
of whom he wrote. And hence here we find 
him, passing over the altar, and over the tem¬ 
ple, and over the types, and standing on an¬ 
other mount than that of Sinai, with Christ 
himself, and to speak with Christ and of his 
decease. 

Close by the side of the great legislator of 
the house of Abraham, stands Elias —that 
prophet of a mystical name, that prince among 
the prophets, the representative of all ancient 
prophecy—to show that all the prophecies 
meet and mingle and are magnified in Christ. 

Elias had been translated about nine hun¬ 
dred years. He had stood conspicuous among 
the prophets, not by his writings, but by his 
works. He sat on Carmel and vindicated the 
absolute supremacy of Jehovah among the 
revolted tribes of Samaria. He had destroyed 
by fire called down from heaven the bands of 
fifties with their captains who had attempted 
to hurt him. He had restored the worship of 
the onty true God when almost the whole land 
of Israel was overspread with idolatry ; and 
while so many worshipped Baal, he had lived 


THE HEAVENLY VISITANTS. 91 

in faith on that Saviour which was to come. 
He had prayed earnestly that it might not 
rain, and it rained not upon the earth for 
three years and six months; and*he had been 
miraculously taken from earth, in a chariot of 
fire and horses of fire, to the presence of the 
Almighty. 

He too has come, in the name and as the 
representative of the goodly fellowship of the 
prophets , to give honor to the transfigured 
Saviour, and to give testimony to Jesus as 
their Saviour and their Lord. He has come 
to declare that “the testimony of Jesus is the 
spirit of prophecyto talk of his decease as 
the great theme of all prophetic scriptures, 
“for to Him gave all the prophets witness 
and to show that in him all their predictions 
meet and prophecies centre, and that before 
him all prophets, first and last, must bow. 

Here then was Moses, the founder of the 
law and a prince among legislators; and Elias, 
whose whole life was an enforcement of that 
law, and who was a prince among the proph¬ 
ets-—both appearing at the levee of their Sov¬ 
ereign ; to bear united testimony to the supe¬ 
rior dignity of Him whose dispensation was to 
be one of “grace and truth,” and to lay down 


92 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

their office at the feet of the Messiah, who. 
though now moving in humiliation on the 
earth, and working with all patience a work 
of suffering and self-denial, was none other 
than the appointed Deliverer who had been 
typified by the sacrifices of the law, and cele¬ 
brated in the strains of the prophets. 

And thus the law points with the finger 
of Moses, and all the prophets point with the 
finger of Elijah to “ the Lamb of God” as the 
great substance of the foreshadowings of the 
law, as the great Echo of the promises of 
prophecy, as the woman’s* seed who should 
bruise the serpent’s head—the great Messiah, 
the glory of his people Israel. 

As we linger then on the summit of the 
holy mount, and gaze on Moses, and Elias, and 
Jesus, respectively representing the law, the 
prophets, and the new covenant, are we not 
impressed with the thought that this scene on 
Tabor is eminently fitted to teach that there 
has been throughout harmony in all the deal¬ 
ings of God with his people—that the Old and 
New Testaments are one; that types and 
shadows have met in Christ; that every vic¬ 
tim which was commanded to be slain, and 
every prophecy that had been breathed, bore 


THE HEAVENLY VISITANTS. 93 

a reference to Jesus, and found a fulfilment in 
Him and in his work. 

The types, shadows, ceremonies, and proph¬ 
ecies of the Old Testament may appear to the 
unskilful eye and to the unpractised hand like 
the different disjointed parts of a clock, with¬ 
out object, meaning, or design ; but as, when 
put together, each in its own place, it is found 
that there is one grand design—that all are 
moving and combine to intimate the hour of 
the day—so when we hear the great epochal 
hour of heaven and earth strike, “It is fin¬ 
ished, 7 ’ we learn what a great and magnificent 
preparation was made for great and magnifi¬ 
cent results. 

Moses the lawgiver, and Elias the prophet 
came to testify that in Him, who was the glory 
of Tabor, all was fulfilled ; giving us thereby 
the strong assurance that salvation has all 
along been attainable through one and only 
one channel, whether shadowed forth in the 
mystic ritual, or beheld in the vision of seers, 
or scattered in the grand figures of poetry— 
that the same deliverance has been proposed to 
the nations, a deliverance through the blood 
and righteousness of a Surety who died, the just 
for the unjust', that he might bring us to God. 


94 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

If we would learn that Christ “came not 
to destroy the law or the prophets ; that he 
came not to destroy, but to fulfilthat the 
patriarchal and Levitical dispensations were 
introductory to the Christian—harbingers to 
the full light of gospel day—we have only to 
let our eye rest on Tabor when tenanted for a 
night by these glorious worthies, Moses, Elias, 
and Christ; listen for a little to their converse, 
and then.behold Moses and Elias departing, 
thereby confessing the supremacy of Jesus; 
and henceforth we see no man save Jesus 
only. 

God’s truth is an indestructible and un¬ 
changing unity throughout all periods of time. 
Christ was preached in the legal types, and 
embodied in each prophetic vision, so that by 
calling Moses and Elias to converse with him, 
Jesus virtually put a seal to their united tes¬ 
timony ; and he says, as it were, to his disci¬ 
ples on the mount, and to us in the vale, “Ye 
believe in the precepts of the law and in the 
writings of the prophets; and in all this ye do 
well, for they are they which testify of me. I 
was the life of that uplifted serpent. I was 
the water from that smitten rock. I was the 
true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and 


THE HEAVENLY VISITANTS. 95 

not man. I was the fountain opened for the 
people’s sins. I was the devoted victim on 
whom should be laid the iniquity of all. I am 
the Lamb slain from the foundation of the 
world, and Moses and Elias were only sent to 
prepare my way before me.” 

The law being “a shadow of good things 
to come, and not the very image of the things,” 
was in the fulness of time to be done away; 
and hence, when the disciples “lifted up their 
eyes, they saw no man save Jesus only.” 
There was no Moses, no Elias. They had 
borne their willing testimony, and departed, 
leaving Christ the sole and all-sufficient object 
of confidence, adoration, and love. Moses had 
laid up his rod. The moth had consumed the 
prophetic mantle of Elijah, the Saviour of all 
the ends of the earth had come, and Christ 
was to be all in all. 

Thus in the presence of Moses and Elias— 
representatives of the law and the prophets— 
the gospel is established. They both confess 
Him whom they typified and predicted. The 
peculiar offices of both have ceased. The Old 
Testament economy has vanished, like Moses 
when he died on Mount Nebo, or like Elijah 
when he disappeared from the earth. But 


96 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

they still do homage to Christ, attest his Mes- 
siahship in purpose and spirit, and reappear 
in the gospel more bright and luminous than 
before. Oh, how they exalt and extol Jesus. 
Surely this is He of whom Moses and the 
prophets did write—the Son of God, the King 
of Israel. 


Luke 9:30, 31: “And behold, there talked with him 
two men, which were Moses and Elias : who appeared in 
glory.” 


Konnt. 

























. 















































' 


















* - 






























































IX. 


J'h El R jj-LORIOUS ^PPEARANCE, 

“Palms of glory, raiment bright, 

, Crowns that never fade away, 

Gird and deck the saints in light, 

Priests and kings and conquerors they.” 

f ^HE reappearance of the departed 
has excited the curiosity and oc¬ 
cupied a place in the superstitions 
of mankind in every age. And so 
wrought upon have the minds of the 
weak and ignorant occasionally been by the 
arts of imposture, that some have imagined 
they saw the forms of the dead before them, 
and heard warnings and counsels from their 
lips. But the circumstances in which such 
things are said to have occurred, and the 
communications supposed to have been made, 
were either so trifling or so limited in their 
object, as to stamp the whole with the seal of 
delusion. Who can imagine that God would 
permit a soul to depart even for a season from 
the abodes of the lost, or to leave the man¬ 
sions of the blessed, merely to excite idle 



100 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

terror, or to gratify vain curiosity? .There 
•is nothing, however, in the appearance of 
Moses and Elias on the holy mount to awaken 
our suspicion. The reality of the appearance 
of these heaven-appointed delegates is unques¬ 
tionable, and the object of their visit to earth 
was in all respects worthy the wisdom and 
love of Jehovah. The persons were most 
illustrious, and the subject of conversation the 
most important that can occupy the mind of 
men or angels. Moses the lawgiver puts his 
rod into Jesus’ hand, Elijah spreads over him 
his mantle, and both these honor him as their 
Lord and resign their authority to him; so 
that we, in the full assurance of faith, can say, 
as Philip said to Nathanael, “We have found 
him of whom Moses in the law, and the proph- * 
ets, did write, Jesus of Nazareth the Son of 
Joseph.” Here then is a true vision of departed 
saints. 

Fifteen centuries had run their course 
since the unknown grave in the valley of 
Moab closed upon the body of the illustrious 
lawgiver, and nine hundred years since Elijah 
the prophet, without seeing death, ascended 
to heaven in the chariot of fire and the horses 
of fire. But these centuries had not impaired 


THEIR GLORIOUS APPEARANCE. 101 

the energies of these noble worthies, nor weak¬ 
ened their interest in earth. They are here 
on this mountain now, not only, as we consid¬ 
ered in the last chapter, as representatives of 
the law and the prophets, but here also as 
representatives of those myriads of the old church 
who had reached their celestial homes; here, to 
give us an insight into the invisible world, to 
assure us of the existence of the departed 
good, to afford us pregnant suggestions of 
things beyond the grave, to open for us a lit¬ 
tle the door of heaven, that we may see a 
“great multitude which no man can number 
that are before the throne, clothed with white- 
robes, and palms in their hands.” They are 
here to show us an illustration of the dead who 
shall be raised, and of the living who shcdl be 
changed at the coining of Christ in glory. 

In the fourth chapter of the first epistle to 
the Thessalonians there is given the most de¬ 
tailed account that Scripture affords of the 
wondrous manifestations of the last day. In 
the sixteenth verse of that chapter we read: 
“The Lord himself shall descend from heaven 
with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, 
and with the trump of God; and the dead in 
Christ”—those beloved ones who have de- 


102 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

parted in the faith, whose spirits are now in 
joy and felicity with God, but whose bodies 
are now mouldering in the grave—these, the 
dead in Christ, “shall rise first. Then we 
which are alive and remain shall be caught up 
together with them in the clouds, to meet the 
Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with 
the Lord / 7 The raised believing dead and 
the changed believing living will then form 
the great vision of departed saints. 

Of the raised believing dead, Moses appears 
before us on the holy mount as a beautiful 
illustration. In the book of Deuteronomy we 
are told that Moses was to go up to Mount 
Nebo, and die there; and in the fifth verse of 
the thirty-fourth chapter it is recorded: “So 
Moses the servant of the Lord died there in 
the land of Moab, according to the word of 
the Lord. And he buried him in a valley in 
the land of Moab, over against Beth-peor ”— 
his death and burial are both mentioned— 
“but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto 
this day.” Jude in his epistle records: “Yet 
Michael the archangel, when contending with 
the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, 
durst not bring against him a railing accusa¬ 
tion, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” If 


THEIR GLORIOUS APPEARANCE. 103 

there is no certainty here, may we not inno¬ 
cently suppose, when we are speaking of 
Moses’ appearance as a mere illustration, that 
the controversy between Michael the arch¬ 
angel and the devil had reference to this 
appearance of Moses on Tabor ? When the 
honor of appearing on the mount of Transfig¬ 
uration was about to be conferred upon the 
meek and beloved Moses, the servant of God, 
and “Michael the archangel”—for it is “the 
voice of the archangel and the trump of God 
that shall raise the dead”—was sent for that 
body to be present as an illustration of the 
raised dead in Christ, the devil disputed with 
him, urging probably that Christ had not got 
possession of the keys of death, for he had 
not himself overcome death by rising again 
from the sepulchre; thus endeavoring to keep 
possession of the dead body, so that it might 
not become a witness to Christ’s power, an 
evidence of hope to the living, and a glorious 
messenger from heaven to cheer the Saviour 
on his way to the grave. 

We know indeed that Christ is spoken of 
as “the first-fruits of them that sleep,” and 
so he is “ the first-fruits ' 1 ' 1 —as the sheaf that 
was waved before the Lord and offered to 


104 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

him ere the harvest commenced. But there 
was provision made by the law for “plucking 
a handful,”.an ear with the hand, ere even the 
first-fruits were reaped. And so might not 
Moses for a special purpose have been gath¬ 
ered, as it were, with the hand, and brought 
in and presented on Tabor as an earnest of 
the raised and glorified dead, when Christ 
shall come to be glorified in his saints and to 
be admired in all them that believe ? 

But whether it was the body which God 
buried in the valley of Moab over against 
Beth-peor, or a body which God prepared for 
him, and permitted him to assume for the 
present occasion, as at various times he had 
allowed angels to do, this much we know, that 
Moses died as other men die, and that he was 
buried, and that he now appears in glory, and 
that his appearance is a beautiful illustration 
of those saints who are to come up from the 
grave and stand with Christ in a reanimated, 
spiritual, and glorious form. 

But Elias is also here. And may we not 
say that he is 'present as a Jit illustration of those 
who shall be alive, and remain at the coming of 
the Lord, and who shall never die ? 

Elijah, you remember, never tasted death. 


THEIR GLORIOUS APPEARANCE. 105 

There came chariots of fire and horses of fire, 
and the body and spirit of the prophet passed 
undivided into heaven. His body was not 
consigned to the dishonors of corruption, but 
was changed, as those of all living will be, 
when Christ comes to judgment. Hence we 
may regard him as portraying to us those 
saints who, living when Christ shall appear, 
shall be changed without seeing corruption. 
He came with his own body, which had been 
spiritualized when he ascended, to receive his 
gracious reward, and with Moses he thus 
“appeared in glory.” 

What a miniature then have w T e here on 
Tabor of that august scene in unmeasured 
magnificence, which is yet to be witnessed, not 
only by Peter and James and John, but by an 
assembled universe. The buried saints shall 
be raised, while those that are alive and 
remain shall be changed, in a moment, in the 
twinkling of an eye, and shall be caught up to 
meet the Lord in the air. This is the grand 
consummation for which God s people have 
ever looked, and the expectation of which 
Paul, in that passage to which we have already 
referred, reminds the Thcssalonians was the 
best solace when death made its entrance into 
5* 


106 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

their households. And if the grave shall thus 
yield up the dust of the righteous, so that all 
who have gone hence in the faith of the Re¬ 
deemer shall start from their long slumbers, 
and welcome their Master as he comes to be¬ 
stow the long-promised gracious reward ; and* 
if, at the same instant of time, believers, who 
are yet wearing on earth a body of corruption, 
shall undergo a change from mortality to im¬ 
mortality, and receive imperishable bodies as 
they mount to meet their King—then in Moses 
and Elias, who stood with Christ in the hour 
of transfiguration, we have a most accurate 
illustration of that glorified community, gath¬ 
ered from the dead and the living, which shall 
be summoned around the Redeemer when he 
comes to the judgment. 

These heavenly visitants, we are told, 
“appeared in glory” They had come from 
heaven, and though their honor and felicity 
there were unspeakable, they felt no reluc¬ 
tance to descend to this mountain. They 
were not called to relinquish their splendor, 
or to conceal it with a veil, as our Lord is 
said to have “emptied himself” when he ap¬ 
peared in our world. How great the glory 
which encircled them, when it was visible even 


THEIR GLORIOUS APPEARANCE. 107 

amid the brightness spread around our Lord! 
But the more splendid their glory, the more 
honorable to Him to whom they did obeisance. 
Nothing is recorded in Holy Writ of the splen¬ 
dor of the heavenly messengers who minis¬ 
tered to the Saviour in his temptation in the 
wilderness or in his agony in the garden, but 
those who came to give him pledges of glory 
on the holy mount, and to call him forth from 
the grave on the morning of his resurrection, 
are described as having countenances like 
lightning, and raiment white as snow. Moses 
and Elias appear in human form, but that form 
is adorned with the lustre and filled with the 
power of immortality. It is the glory of their 
exalted nature, not equal indeed to that of 
the Redeemer, but heightened by the reflec¬ 
tion of his splendor, and sufficient to satisfy 
their desires as immortal beings. The radiant 
smiles that illumine their countenances, the 
garments of light that envelop their forms, 
tell of some other world than this. They have 
come from the world of spirits, that holy, 
happy region where none but such dwell. 
They are of the company of the spirits of the 
just made perfect. How bright, how immor¬ 
tal they look! They have waxed not old, 


108 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

neither have they decayed, though so many 
centuries have elapsed since they took their 
departure from this earth. Their corruptible 
has put on incorruption, and their mortal put 
on immortality, and they shine as the sun in 
the kingdom of our Father. And if Moses and 
Elias descended from their glory, in order to 
visit and do honor to Jesus, would not the 
whole company of prophets, the whole army 
of martyrs, every saint of every age, the whole 
host of heaven, if permitted by their God, 
have gladly come down to bow at the feet of 
the same Saviour, and to adore him whom 
angels are commanded to worship ? 

Oh, if heaven sends forth its best sons to 
do Jesus honor, will not earth give him honor 
too ? There is not one in that land of perfect 
light and love who would not cast his crown 
at Jesus’ feet, and who would not fly to do 
his pleasure on the wings of immortality. 
And yet there are many on earth who cast 
dishonor on his name, refuse to own him as 
their Lord, and shrink from confessing him 
before men. Oh, let these words of the trans¬ 
figured Lord sink deep into every heart: “He 
that is ashamed of me, and of my words, of 
him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when 


THEIR GLORIOUS APPEARANCE. 109 

he cometh in his glory, and that of the holy 
angels.” On that glorious day he will raise 
the bodies of his saints, publicly own them 
for his people, and put them in full posses¬ 
sion of eternal life. Yes, no matter who you 
are, if you are Christ’s ransomed one, and 
no matter where your dead dust may lie, God 
will watch over it, and keep it safe till Christ 
comes to judgment. He knows how to gather 
his own elect. Let the whirlwind bear away 
the chariots of Israel and the horsemen thereof; 
let the people mourn and search for the lost 
sepulchre of Moses ; both will gladly appear 
at the bidding of Him who gave them eternal 
life, and to him at last shall the gathering of 
his people be. 

But let us bear in mind that if we would 
appear like Moses and Elias in glory on that 
day, we must not let this “vile body” sink 
our spirits to the dust, and thus deprive us 
of a glorious immortality. Our very body, if 
we are Christ’s, like that of Moses and Elias, 
is designed by Christ for the noblest allot¬ 
ments. Let us not defile and dishonor the 
members, hereafter to be arrayed in glory, 
by yielding them as instruments of unright¬ 
eousness. Let us stand side by side with 


110 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Moses and Elias on the holy mount, as they 
appear in glory, and see how sin has deformed 
and degraded us. Our bodies were not made 
to grovel in the dust. Like our souls, they 
long for immortality. Let us seek to shake 
off, then, even from our body, every trace of 
* transgression, and pray for grace to withstand 
those appetites and desires which prove us 
vile and corruptible. 

As we gaze upon Tabor, and see men of 
like passions with ourselves there in glory, we 
must resolve, by the grace of God, that, though 
the earth for a time may become the sepulchre 
of our body, our body will never become the 
sepulchre of our soul; that we will present it, 
even now, to God a living sacrifice, holy and 
acceptable in his sight, which is our reasona¬ 
ble service ; that when Christ comes “in his 
glory / 7 it may awake and sing to the honor of 
him who redeemed it with his blood, and hath 
wholly conformed it to his own glorious body. 


X. 


T h 


j^ESSONS 


OF THEIR 




PPEAR- 


ANCE. 


“ Lo, darkness and doubt are now flying away, 

No longer I roam in conjecture forlorn ; 

So breaks on the traveller, faint and astray, 

The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn. 

See truth, love, and mercy in triumph ascending, 

And nature all glowing in Eden’s first bloom! 

On the cold cheek of death smiles and roses are blending, 
And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb.” 

E have already hinted at some 
lessons which may be gathered from 
the visit of these heavenly messen¬ 
gers to Jesus on the holy mount; 
and there are a few others upon which it may 
be profitable for us to meditate as a confirma¬ 
tion of our faith and an encouragement to our 
hope. 

If these events on the mount of Transfigu¬ 
ration were real , as every thing connected with 
the narrative goes to attest, there must be a 
future state for those who pass from this world. 

Man, we are assured in God’s word, is not 



112 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

like the beast which perisheth. He has an 
immortal nature, which must endure for ever. 
When this dust returns to the earth as it 
was, the soul returns to God who gave it. 
Enoch and Elijah were translated that they 
should not see death. The former in the pa¬ 
triarchal, and the latter in the Mosaic dispen¬ 
sation, that men under each dispensation might 
have an ocular demonstration of the passage 
of humanity to another and higher sphere. 
This fact, recorded of two of our race, is the 
pledge of a truth respecting them all. It is 
the testimony that God would give us to the 
existence of departed men. The pleasing 
hope, the fond desire, the longing after im¬ 
mortality, experienced by the heathen philos¬ 
opher, is established as a fact to every reader 
of God’s word. The translation of Enoch and 
Elijah was a practical demonstration of man’s 
immortality. And here on the holy mount, 
Moses and Elijah now appear: the former who 
had passed through the gates of death into the 
invisible, and the latter the occupant of a fiery 
chariot that bore him heavenward; showing 
that no matter how the transit is made from 
this w r orld, there is a future for humanity; and 
showing, too, that those who have left this 


LESSONS OF THEIR APPEARANCE. 113 

world not only exist, but exist in the con¬ 
scious exercise of all their powers. What a 
mighty confirmation we have here of the im¬ 
mortality of the soul! 

For ages upon ages the cry had gone forth: 
“Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou re¬ 
turn.“Was this spoken of the soul?” This, 
in the main, was the query of the old heathen 
philosophers, and indeed of all alive to their own 
character and nature. Century followed cen¬ 
tury as year followed year, gathering in their 
course the good and the great of every nation 
and of every land, and buried them in the 
earth. And yet no light, no solution of 
the ever-present and ever-pressing question 
came.. Of the countless numbers who had 
left the world since it was started in its orbit, 
not one had ever returned, nor had any com¬ 
munication been received from them by the 
earth. Gazing over the broad ocean, or far 
away into the blue depths of space, many and 
many an awakened spirit thus had asked: 

‘ ‘ When that vast sun shall veil his golden light 
Deep in the gloom of everlasting night— 

When wild destruction’s flame shall wrap the skies— 
When Chaos triumphs, and when Nature dies— 

Shall man alone the wreck of worlds survive ? 

’Midst falling spheres, shall he immortal live ?” 


114 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Nature had bee.n studied; and from the 
rising sap, and from the budding leaf and 
bloom of spring, it had been inferred that 
man may awaken to newness of life, and arise 
to similar beauty and splendor. Man’s inner 
being had been questioned, and from its sanc¬ 
tuary there had come the impression that 
mortal shall put on immortality; else, “why 
shrinks the soul back on herself, and startles at 
destruction ?” But the teachings of nature, the 
deductions of reason, the impressions of the 
conscience had never been confirmed. They 
were at best but probabilities, not certainties; 
dreams or hopes, not facts. How glad there¬ 
fore we should be to have the fact of a separate 
future state established on such testimony as 
that given to us on the holy mount. 

Moses indeed had not spoken of it fully in 
his writings; nor, as the object of religious 
hope, is it to be found in the exhortations of 
Elijah. Of course it is contained in the teach¬ 
ings of both, as we learn from the words ad¬ 
dressed to the rich man in torment: “They 
have Moses and the prophets, let them hear 
them.” But now all doubt is removed. In 
this vision on Tabor the blessed truth is' 
brought out—a living, patent, substantial re- 


LESSONS OF THEIR APPEARANCE. 115 

ality. Peter and James and John have evi¬ 
dence which their eyes can see and ears ver¬ 
ify, that all true believers in Christ, after be¬ 
ing removed from this visible scene, whether 
borne away by a whirlwind in a chariot of fire, 
or laid by angel hands in some undiscovered 
sepulchre, do in very deed live on —live in 
glory, live in blessedness, live to take an in¬ 
terest in the concerns of that world that gave 
them birth and where they toiled and wept 
and fought, live to discourse with the blessed 
Jesus, and to “see him as he is.” Two re¬ 
splendent forms, who had passed away from 
earth, had come to commune with Jesus. 
They are Moses and Elias. In their celestial 
bodies, they illumine the mount; and they 
speak with Jesus in language known to the 
disciples. Let us not be ignorant then, 
brethren, concerning them which are asleep 
in Christ; neither let us sorrow as those who 
have no hope. The dead do live. Immor¬ 
tality is the destiny of man. 

Again, in this bright scene on Tabor, we 
have an evidence of the resurrection of the 
body. 

We have glanced at this truth already; 
but it seems to claim a more extended notice, 


116 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

as it is one which not only excites our curios¬ 
ity, but encourages our hearts. 

With many people the resurrection of the 
body is a dead letter in their jcreed. They 
have an almost Athenian contempt for the 
doctrine. “ It is a thing incredible with them 
that God should raise the dead.” They have 
no idea of a risen body, except as a gross and 
perishable thing, fettered by the conditions of 
this animal economy, which, while we are in 
the flesh, is the source to us of so much dis- 
quietude and of so much sin. But there is no 
truth in God’s word which we should not cher¬ 
ish ; and no testimony to that truth which we 
should not seek to understand; and no doc¬ 
trine taught on the blessed page of God’s own 
book, that we should not believe, and upon 
which we should not permit our faith to feed. 

Here then, after an interval of many cen¬ 
turies, Moses appears with a body , and Elias 
appears with a body. In that unknown grave 
over against Baal-peor all that was mortal of 
the great lawgiver has developed and quick¬ 
ened into a new organization—an organization 
upon which no worm can feed, and which no 
corruption can waste. And in that brief trans¬ 
ition from earth to heaven, at the instant, it 


LESSONS OF THEIR APPEARANCE. 117 

may be, of his setting foot into his gorgeous 
equipage of fire, the body of Elijah became 
fashioned into a glorious body, causing all that 
was corruptible, earthly, and unlovely to drop 
off, even as his mantle fell from him to the 
ground. Here then we have a proof of the 
glory of the resurrection body of the good: 
“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at 
the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, 
and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, 
and we shall be changed.” The appearance 
of Moses and Elias on the transfiguration mount 
was a sample of the glorified saints in heaven. 
“ Who shall change,” says Paul in speaking of 
the Saviour, “ our vile body ”—change it; not 
destroy it, not annihilate it, not absorb it into 
a pure spiritualism—but refine it, sublimate it, 
recast it into some new mould of being—a 
form like that of the glorified Son of God. 
The members shall be as the Head. The chil¬ 
dren shall be as the Heir—their vile bodies 
purified ; fashioned like unto his glorious body, 
at whose superhuman brightness the disciples 
were sore afraid. x 

On the Tabor which is above, in the bright 
transfigurations of the last day, there shall ap¬ 
pear not Moses and Elias only, not Peter and 


118 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

James and John only, but all who have be¬ 
lieved on Jesus through their word ; their 
countenances shining as the sun, their rai¬ 
ment all white as the light, and all talking 
with Jesus—not of his sufferings merely, but 
of his triumphs ; not of his dying pains, but of 
his risen glory—a glory which they and we 
shall both behold and share. 

By this vision upon the mount, we seem to 
be assured also that in the life of the world to 
come we shall know each other . We think it 
proves that our knowledge of individuals will 
be retained in heaven. Peter and James 
aud John did not see two unknown messen¬ 
gers from the spirit-land. They saw Moses as 
Moses, and Elias as Elias. We are not told by 
what means the disciples arrived at a knowl¬ 
edge of their present identity, but the evan¬ 
gelic narrative supposes that they had this 
knowledge, and the great purposes of the 
transfiguration would not have been answered 
without it. 

The disciples might have gained the knowl¬ 
edge that it was Moses and Elias who were 
now^ appearing in glory before them, by hear¬ 
ing the conversation between Jesus and these 
heavenly visitants, in the course of which ref- 


LESSONS OF THEIR APPEARANCE. 119 

erences to each of their histories may have 
been made, as they “spake of the decease 
which Jesus should accomplish at Jerusalem 
or, during their ascent of the mountain, Jesus 
may have instructed the disciples that some 
such visit as this might be expected. But 
however they acquired the knowledge, the 
fact is unquestionable, that they knew these 
men in shining garments to be Moses and 
Elias j giving us the assurance that we shall 
know each other in the life that is to come. 
Dives “ saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in 
his bosom.” And the same recognition which 
augments the bitterness of hell will sweeten 
the blessedness and joys of heaven. What an 
animating and comforting thing it is, as we 
stand over the grave of our departed, to know 
that there will be blessed recognitions in heav¬ 
en ; that when we awake from the deep slum¬ 
bers of the grave, and are caught up with 
Jesus to the mount of uncreated glory, not 
only shall we behold patriarchs on their 
thrones, and prophets by the altar, and elders 
as they bow, and the apostles as they cry 
aloud; but we shall see those whom we knew 
on earth—shall be permitted to embrace our 
children and our friends again with all the 


120 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

fervor of a pure and spiritual and everlasting 
love. The relative that we prayed for will be 
there; the erring sinner whom we rescued 
will be there. The attached flock shall behold 
there the face of their faithful minister, while 
the pastor shall be there to see his “joy and 
crown of rejoicing.” Without recognitions in 
the heavenly state there would be no friendly 
ties and no love of saints one to another. But 
God is love; heaven is love. “ Charity never 
faileth.” Our earthly attachments, like our 
earthly bodies, shall not be destroyed, but 
purified. All in them that is unfit for heaven 
will be taken away; the rest will remain. 
We shall have our friendships there, deep 
without passion, fond without infirmity, tran¬ 
quil because undisturbed by rival regards, and 
happy because they can be dissolved no more. 
Language is too weak and imagination too 
poor to portray, or even to conceive, the in¬ 
timacy of intercourse, the promptness of com¬ 
munication, and the sympathy of feeling, we 
shall enjoy in heaven, where all our. duties 
and employments shall dispose us to love, 
where doubts and suspicions never can enter, 
where affections never grow cold, and where 
the very atmosphere we breathe is love. 


LESSONS OE THEIR APPEARANCE. 121 

And may we not learn this lesson also 
from the employment of these heavenly vis¬ 
itants on that holy mount: that we shall have 
some mode by which we can interchange ideas 
in heaven ? Moses and Elias talked with 
Jesus. The thought of a silent world is in¬ 
supportable. But how grand the idea of a 
glorious place, where praise only breaks the 
silence, where nothing jars with the melody 
of the eternal chime, where the roll of the 
pealing hallelujahs is like the voice of many 
waters, where every one hath a song, every 
one a story of deliverance, every one hath a 
tribute of thanksgiving to free, sovereign, un¬ 
merited grace, and yet in which every one 
refers his blessing to the “ decease which 
Jesus accomplished at Jerusalem. 7 ’ Such a 
place is the future, the eternal home of all 
God’s children. And how clear is the light 
which this vision sheds over the certainty, the 
employments, the glory, and pleasures of that 
heavenly state. 

Blessed be God, we are not left to form 
our ideas of futurity from the wild and sen¬ 
sual follies of heathenism, nor from the deduc¬ 
tions of reason, which are limited and unsat¬ 
isfactory, but from the revelations made by 
6 


Holy Mount. 


122 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Him with whom are the words of eternal 
life. 

Behold then, in this scene, two departed 
saints in the possession of all the powers of 
soul and body in a state of perfection, capa¬ 
ble of every service, and blessed with their 
Saviour’s joy. These are pledges of the glory 
of the righteous, and in them we may behold 
what we in due time shall be, if we are the 
disciples of Jesus. We too shall “appear in 
glory,” and then we shall talk with Jesus, and 
address to his ear the anthem of gratitude: 
“Thou art worthy, for thou wast slain and 
hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood;” 
while his communications to us will fill us with 
light, our hearts with love, and our whole 
being with rapturous wonder. There that 
question, too, which has often perplexed us on 
earth shall be fully answered: “Shall we 
know each other there ?”—answered to the 
joy of our heart, for we shall see even as 
we are seen, and know even as we are 
known. 

With such hopes, then, as this vision im¬ 
parts, we can brave the gloom of death and 
the putrefaction of the grave. Christ is one 
with us in earthly shame and in heavenly 


LESSONS OF THEIR APPEARANCE. 123 

glory. He who is “afflicted in all our afflic¬ 
tions” would have us glorified in all his tri¬ 
umphs. If we suffer with him, he would have 
us reign with him. Tabor shall be ours as 
well as Calvary, and a crown shall grace the 
brow that for Jesus’ sake may have been 
pierced with thorns. 



Luke 9 : 31: “And spake of his decease which he should 
accomplish at Jerusalem.” 




J"he ^Subject of their jwON verse 
with jJesus. 


“ Oh* never, never canst thou know 
What then for thee the Saviour bore ; 
The pangs of that mysterious woe 
Which wrung his bosom’s inmost core. 
Yes, man for man perchance may brave 
The horrors of the yawning grave ; 

And friend for friend, or son for sire, 
Undaunted and unmoved expire, 

From love or piety or pride ; 

But who can die as Jesus died?'’ 



1 \JC 

ANY a conference of distin¬ 
guished persons has been held in 
the histor}^ of our globe, on the 
decisions of whose counsels the 
peace of the world depended. But 
the annals of time present us with no assembly 
so august as that which was convened on Ta¬ 
bor, and with no conversation so profoundly 
interesting as that which occupied the illustri¬ 
ous personages who there met. Some of the 
heroes and legislators of profane antiquity 
were men of splendid name and of mighty 



128 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

influence on their own time and future genera¬ 
tions ; but they can never compare with Moses, 
and Elijah, and Jesus. 

Here is Moses, who was saved when a 
child from the waters of the Nile, who was 
brought up in the court of the Pharaohs, and 
who had in prospect the throne of that land, 
but who left all his greatness and expecta¬ 
tions, and cast in his lot with the afflicted 
people of God; who afterwards became the 
leader and lawgiver of the emancipated tribes 
of Israel, and whose death and burial were 
under the immediate charge of God. 

Here is Elias, who bound up the heavens 
so that they rained not, and who again prayed, 
and rain came; the intrepid reformer, who 
was so distinguished among the prophets, and 
who was taken up to heaven without tasting 
death, there to enjoy eternal glory. 

And here is Jesus of Nazareth, a name 
which is above every name; for at that name 
every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall 
confess. 

Of what, then, did these glorified beings 
speak, in their sublime and unearthly con¬ 
verse, each clothed in lustre, and each arrayed 
in the splendor of immortality? Their theme 


SUBJECT OF THEIR CONVERSE* 129 

surely must be far beyond the character of 
ordinary events: some mighty movement in 
the inscrutable plans of mysterious Provi¬ 
dence ; some astonishing and untried scheme 
in the purposes of the Divine administration, 
and in displaying God’s unspeakable love and 
condescension to man. On what, think you, 
can such a glorious trio speak, if not on such 
majestic themes as the glories, the thrones, 
the sceptres, the palaces of that everlasting 
kingdom which the Mediator shall set up, and 
which he shall share with his saints ? a sub¬ 
ject joyous, cheering, hopeful, bright as the 
bright scene around them. Or was their dis¬ 
course of the glory Christ had with the Father 
when he spoke worlds into being, and bade 
the new-made sun to drive away darkness 
from the face of the deep ? Or was it of the 
impatient joy with which the high hosts of 
heaven were awaiting his return to the sanc¬ 
tuary of immortality? No, such were not 
fitting themes for a time of exaltation tran¬ 
sient as this. The converse of the heavenly 
visitants with Christ was of his approaching 
sufferings , the dark hour of agony , the raging 
thirst , the cries and faintings of redemption 1 s 
finished work. If the assembly on Tabor had 
6 * 


130 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


been a conclave of the wise and the mighty 
and the noble* of the earth, they would likely 
have selected something regarding the fate of 
battles, the revolution of empires, or the 
proud ascendency of earthly and ambitious 
conquest. But these celestial nobles did not 
speak even of Christ’s temporal glory, nor did 
they dwell on the many crowns which were 
reserved for him to wear when the kingdoms 
of this world should become the kingdoms of 
our Lord and of his Christ. They could only 
speak of hi s do gtb, the death of their incarnate 
Lord. To that death they owed their heav¬ 
enly glory, and with it were identified all 
their hopes. They did not come from heaven 
to tell Jesus any thing of its details. He 
knew them all. They came to learn from him 
something respecting it. The very angels 
looked into it with eager curiosity, anxious to 
know what that death might signify. So did 
these two glorified ones come to ask Jesus of 
that death which he was to endure for sinners, 
and to feast their souls while meditating on 
the surpassing love, the incomparable wisdom, 
and inexorable justice which were to occupy 
them to all eternity. 

1 It may seem strange that in this hour of 



SUBJECT OF THEIR CONVERSE. 131 

triumph there should be any mention of hu-^ 
miliation; that just at the moment when the 
diadem of conquest was on Immanuers head, 
they should have referred to the crown of 
thorns by which it must be circled ; that while 
his face was shining as the sun, they should 
have spoken of that countenance as spit upon 
and buffeted; that while his raiment was 
white and beautiful as the light, they should 
have made any reference to those robes with 
which impious men, in scorn and mockery, 
would array him. 

And yet it was not strange; for it was by 
the shame and the anguish, the insult and the 
death, that the Captain of our salvation ac¬ 
complished his great work, discomfited the 
hosts of fallen angels, and unriveted the 
chains by which man had been bound as an 
alien to God. 

To converse, therefore, with Jesus about } 
this, was like speaking to a mighty Potentate 
of resistless armies, of splendid fleets, and of 
the unmeasured resources which assure him 
of the mastery of the world. To converse 
with Christ about his cross, was to speak of ♦ 
the mysterious but overwhelming weapons 
which should hew down those enemies which 



132 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


would destroy the universe. To speak of the 
shedding of his blood, was to speak of him 
treading the wine-press alone with a Conquer¬ 
or’s step, and destroying the evil that had 
desecrated the works of his hand. No won¬ 
der, then, that in this hour of triumph these 
delegates from glory should mention his hu¬ 
miliation, for even in heaven the marks^of 
shame upon the Saviour are the insignia of 
honor*.. In that glowing description of the 
Apocalypse, the Saviour, you will remember, 
is exhibited in the midst of the throne as a 
Lamb that was slain; as if he still showed his 
wounds, and still retained his scars. He con¬ 
quered by dying; and hence the marks of the 
nails and of the spear will be for ever his most, 
splendid decoration. And when you remem¬ 
ber that every sacrifice under the law was to 
find its Antitype in the sacrifice of Calvary, 
and every prediction delivered by the proph¬ 
ets required for its fulfilment that Christ 
should die as the substitute of man, you can¬ 
not fail to perceive that Moses and Elias, com¬ 
ing forward as the representatives of the law 
• and the prophets, could find no such fit sub¬ 
ject for conversation as the agony and death 
of the Eedeemer. 



SUBJECT OF THEIR CONVERSE. 133 

Are you disappointed in the subject of dis¬ 
course between the glorious ones who have 
met on the sacred mount ? If you are, I fear 
you have not the Spirit of Christ nor the mind 
of Christ. If you cannot see any of the bear¬ 
ings which that wondrous topic which occu¬ 
pied their thoughts has on the grand and ex¬ 
tensive scheme of God’s moral government; 
if you cannot perceive any of the distinguish¬ 
ing glories it throws around the divine char¬ 
acter ; and if you cannot feel any thing of the 
inseparable connection which it has with the 
salvation of a lost world, then pray God to 
anoint your eyes with heavenly eye-salve, that 
you may see and understand, and not under¬ 
value the great themes of God and of his 
Christ. 

Whatever importance other subjects may 
have in the estimation of men, they are not 
worthy to be compared with the “ decease 
which Jesus accomplished at Jerusalem.” It 
was the decease of the most extraordinary 
person that ever died. Sinning angels have 
died. They lost the life of God that was in 
them, and are now reserved in chains of dark¬ 
ness till the judgment of the great day. Death 
has passed upon all men, for all have sinned. 


134 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

“Many a prince and great man has fallen.” 
And in a sense, death has dominion over ev¬ 
ery earthly thing, because all is under the 
curse; but the death of which Moses and 
Elias talked with Jesus, was the decease nei¬ 
ther of a man nor yet of an angel, but of the 
God of angels — One who is the Father’s 
equal and the Father’s fellow—the great God 
our Saviour, God over all, blessed for ever. 
His crucifixion was nothing less than the kill¬ 
ing of the Prince of life. 

It was the most extraordinary decease that 
was ever accomplished. It was such a death 
as no other died, and as no other could un¬ 
dergo. It was wonderful that the mighty 
God should suffer and die at all, and more 
wonderful still that he should have died not 
for the holy angels—the heavenly hosts who 
daily minister unto him—but for the unjust; 
for those who were rebels to his throne and 
government; who had done what they could 
to provoke him to anger, and were at the 
same time altogether hateful and offensive in 
the sight of a holy God. 

Not only was it amazing that He should die, 
but that his decease should be so extraordinary 
in its severity. “Never was sorrow like unto his 


SUBJECT OF THEIR CONVERSE. 135 

sorrow,” in the fullest meaning of the words. 
He suffered what heaven regarded as an equiv¬ 
alent for the sins of those for whom he died. 
“He was made a curse for us.” Justice had 
to do in the decease of Christ what it never 
had to do before, either in the person suffer¬ 
ing or in the pains suffered. It had turned 
angels out of heaven, and man out of Par¬ 
adise, and poured fire’ out of heaven upon 
Sodom and Gomorrah, and drowned the world 
for its iniquity; but now it had to bruise God’s 
own dear Son, and put him to grief, and make 
his soul an offering for sin ; and it spared 
him not. 

His death was extraordinary, in that he 
had a full previous view of every item of mis¬ 
ery that was to come upon him. Our sorrows 
are lessened by coming upon us singly, and 
by being concealed by the impenetrable veil 
of futurity. God, in great mercy, has hidden 
the future from our view; but he did not hide 
it from Christ. He saw the whole gathering 
cloud, as it collected and prepared its fearful 
contents to burst upon him. He felt all his 
sorrows in the severest agony, and saw them 
all. in the distance in the blackest coloring; 
and in the hour and power of darkness, he 


136 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

bad not one sympathizing friend to wipe from 
off his cheek the dropping tear. 

He had even to feel the bitterness of this 
lamentation: “My God, my God, why hast 
thou forsaken me ?” 

And Christ’s decease was most extraor¬ 
dinary in the results which it produced. 

The death of a distinguished leader has 
often been the loss of a kingdom; but Christ, 
by death, destroyed him that had the power 
of death. He went forth single-handed against 
all the powers of the wicked one, and giving 
them every advantage which the god of this 
world could wish, the Captain of our salvation, 
by one stroke, “spoiled principalities and 
powers, and made a show of them openly, tri¬ 
umphing over them in his cross;” and “he 
must reign until he hath put all enemies 
under his feet.” 

The death of Christ procured eternal re¬ 
demption for fallen and degenerate man— 
deliverance from all evil here, the possession 
of all good hereafter, grace and glory and 
every good thing. And while it produced 
these unspeakable blessings for man, it brought 
glory to God. His law was magnified and 
made honorable, and every attribute of his 


SUBJECT OF THEIR CONVERSE. 137 

nature was made to shine resplendent in the 
eyes of the universe. 

And think of the magnificent results of his 
death to Christ. He has obtained a name that 
is above every name. He has sat down with 
his Father upon his throne. He wields as 
Mediator the sceptre of the universe ; and he 
will not resign it to his Father till he has 
gathered in the last lamb to his fold, and 
brought t*he last saint to glory. 

This was the theme upon which Moses and 
Elias talked with Jesus. These heavenly vis¬ 
itants might have conversed with each other 
about what they had seen and enjoyed in the 
heavenly country since they had taken their 
departure from this vale of tears; or they 
might have recounted the trials they endured, 
the duties they discharged, or the privileges 
they enjoyed as they served the Lord in these 
outer courts. But no, it is with Jesus and 
what concerned him that their attention is 
now occupied. Nor did they talk with the 
disciples, for they had descended not to hold 
intercourse with them, but with the Master, 
and concerning his decease—a theme precious 
to their hearts, wondrous to their minds, and 
vast enough to task their glorified and immor- 


138 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

tal powers—a theme on which glorified intel¬ 
lects will ponder, and for which glorified 
tongues will utter endless praise. The decease 
of Christ at Jerusalem is the great central 
truth of revelation. It is the theme of dis¬ 
course between the good in all worlds. It is 
the chorus in the anthems of heaven. It is 
the key to unlock all the mysteries in the 
moral empire of God. His decease was the 
laying the foundation broad and deep of a 
magnificent temple to the Lord, the top stone 
of which shall be brought forth with shoutings 
of “Grace, grace unto it.” No event in the 
annals of the world is worthy of being com¬ 
pared with the death of Christ. It stands 
alone and unrivalled, a colossal monument of 
grace, love, mercy, righteousness, and truth. 
It invests the name of the Redeemer with un¬ 
fading glory. 

• One thing more awaits our notice : the 
scene where this wondrous event was to hap¬ 
pen—“ the decease which he should accom¬ 
plish at Jerusalem .” Jerusalem was to be the 
scene of the Saviour’s death. This was a place 
which had enjoyed distinguished privileges. 
Since the time of David it had been the cho¬ 
sen place of Jehovah’s residence. It was there 


SUBJECT OF THEIE CONVEESE. 139 

that Solomon built his magnificent temple, 
according to the Divine appointment. It was 
there that the temple, though inferior to Sol¬ 
omon’s, yet a splendid house, still stood. It 
was there that the Divine worship was cele¬ 
brated with the greatest pomp and regularity. 
It was there that God had often communi¬ 
cated to his people by his prophets what he 
desired them to know. And it was there that 
the people assembled three times a year, at 
the three great annual festivals. 

These then were some of Jerusalem’s priv¬ 
ileges. And how fearfully they were abused 
is well known to every reader of sacred his¬ 
tory. Its inhabitants in all ages had been 
more distinguished for their wicked than for 
their pious conduct. In the days of Christ 
their religious character was unchanged, and 
they were fast ripening for the terrific ruin 
which was to be inflicted by the Roman ar¬ 
mies. But their cup of iniquity was not yet 
full. Though they had already attained to a 
dark preeminence in the annals of martyrdom, 
they had to add one stupendous murder more 
to the fearful catalogue of their crimes ere 
they became the victims of God’s unmitigated 
and tremendous vengeance. And it was done. 


140 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Their fierce and malignant feelings were at 
last gratified by the ignominious death of 
Christ upon the cross. And this deed of 
blood consummated the wickedness of that 
devoted city. When Christ cried upon the 
cross, “It is finished!” he not only announced 
that the redemption of the world was achieved, 
and the gates of heaven thrown open to men 
of every clime and of every age, but he also 
sounded the knell of Jerusalem’s greatness, 
and the approach of that hour of accumulated 
and frightful misery in which that proud city 
and its magnificent temple were to be reduced 
to an unsightly mass of smoking ruins. Well 
might the evangelic prophet exclaim, “Woe 
to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David 
dwelt!” 

Oh, let us remember Jerusalem’s fate with 
fear and trembling. We too are chargeable 
with many sins and with the abuse of many 
privileges. Let us beware lest a day of grace 
give place to a season of consuming wrath. 

Would, therefore, that I could interest you 
more deeply in that Saviour whose death is 
the world’s life. He did not die through any 
necessity of his nature, but purely of his own 
free-will . The brilliant scene on Tabor is the 


SUBJECT OF THEIR CONVERSE. 141 

fullest proof that his death was voluntary. 
Had it not been for his yearnings of unmeas¬ 
ured tenderness for us, he might have over¬ 
leaped the grave and ascended to his throne; 
but so great was his love for us, that he freely 
and graciously and voluntarily went from Ta¬ 
bor to Gethsemane, from Gethsemane to Cal¬ 
vary, and from Calvary to the tomb. Behold, 
how he loved us! 

Are you ashamed then to speak about his 
death? One might suppose that if it were 
right to envy, we might almost envy Peter 
and James and John the opportunity of hear¬ 
ing a conversation on this theme between 
Christ and Moses and Elias. But we need not 
envy. We may read for ourselves what Moses 
wrote, and what Elias and all the prophets 
testified. We may converse in faith and 
prayer with Jesus. We may talk of these 
things with our families and friends, and 
through Christ we can go to heaven, and hear 
how patriarchs and prophets and angels and 
all God’s glorified ones talk and sing together 
of these things without ceasing, and enjoy in¬ 
effable communion with God. 

A closing thought! Wonderful, extraor¬ 
dinary, and unparalleled as the death of 


142 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


Christ was, mark how calmly and pleasingly 
it is spoken of: “ his decease or, literally, 
his departure— his going ont of this world into 
the next. Though it was accomplished in pain 
and ignominy, yet the language simply indi¬ 
cates a change of residence. If we are one 
with Jesus, however terrible in its circumstan¬ 
ces death may come to us, it is thus we should 
contemplate our decease. Many of the true 
disciples of Christ trouble themselves about 
the circumstances of death, about the diseases 
which are to consume and agonize their frames, 
about the pains and groans and dying strife, 
about the dissolving of the body into dust, and 
all the darkness and loathsome corruption of the 
grave. Thus they distress themselves, and 
make death terrible indeed to contemplate. 
But death to the believer, as it was to his 
Lord, is but a departure to his Father’s house, 
a passing out of a world of care and toil and 
suffering, into a world w T here he finds a de¬ 
lightful and everlasting home, from which sor¬ 
row and sighing are for ever fled away, and 
where he is “ ever with the Lord.” 

Nor should the subject of our decease be 
with us a strange subject of meditation in the 
day of our prosperity. When all is sunny and 



SUBJECT OF THEIR CONVERSE. 143 

calm and without a cloud, then we should think 
of our latter end. We should think how soon 
we may pass from Tabor to the grave, from 
visions of transporting bliss to scenes of sor¬ 
row, desolation, and death, when the glister¬ 
ing of our raiment shall be changed into the 
paleness of the shroud. 

It is wrong to put such a topic as this far 
from us in the day of prosperity, and to cher¬ 
ish the delusion that “the fashion of the world’ 7 
shall never pass away, that its treasures shall 
never fade, and that its fine gold shall never 
change. 

Christ did not so bear prosperity. He 
knew that the glory of Tabor would soon pass, 
and that a sunless desolateness of soul would 
succeed, where the very light would be as 
darkness. We should not be afraid, in our 
day of brightness, to speak of our decease ; 
nor when we are contemplating our treasures, 
to think how soon the time will come when all 
we can ask either friend or foe to give us, will 
be a narrow slip of our parent earth for a man¬ 
sion and a resting-place. We shall not dig our 
grave by thinking of it, nor hasten our decease 
by talking of it; but it will enable us to bear 
with more humility the brightness of Tabor, 


144 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

to remember the decease which we shall soon 
have to accomplish. Let us live then in Jesus, 
live with Jesus, live like Jesus, and our de¬ 
cease will be a peaceful transit from one world 
to another. It will be a passing from a lower 
chamber to a higher. It will be a falling asleep 
in Jesus. We shall go hence and be at rest. 


Luke 9 :32 : “But Peter and they that were with him 
W'ere heavy with sleep : and when they were awake, they saw 
his glory, and the two men that stood with him.” 



Holy Mount. 


7 






XII. 


J^he ^Sleepers and their J^oss. 

“Awake, my soul, in joyful lays, 

And sing tliy great Redeemer’s praise ; 

He justly claims a song from thee : 

His loving-kindness, oh, how free!” 

t ^HE human heart cries for sympathy, 
and the heart of Christ, the God- 
man, was no exception. The glory of 
the transfiguration, the visit, and the 
conversation of the heavenly attend¬ 
ants were preparatory to the decease. As 
Jesus was strengthened by an angel from 
heaven in Gethsemane’s agony, so was he 
strengthened by the presence and conversa¬ 
tion of Moses and Elias as he looked forward 
to the dreadful scenes that were looming in 
the hourly-lessening distance. And is it not 
sweet to be the succorer of the tempted, the 
consoler of the distressed, the strengthener of 
the weak, and a minister to those who are ap¬ 
pointed to die ? How eagerly must Moses and 
Elias have embraced the opportunity of com- 



148 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


ing to earth to cheer, by their sympathy and 
interest in his work, their Redeemer and ours! 
And how the joys of the upper world would 
be deepened as Moses and Elias, on their 
return, would repeat their conversation with 
the transfigured Saviour! Alas, that there 
should be such apathy respecting all that con¬ 
cerns the Saviour on the earth ! Why should 
there be one dull ear, or inattentive mind, or 
sleepy frame, as we repeat the story of the 
decease that was accomplished at Jerusalem— 
a decease from which flow streams of life and 
salvation to those who are ready to perish ? 
On that sacred mount, illuminated with the 
glory of the Lord and privileged with dele¬ 
gates from the court of heaven, from that 
“land that is very far off/’ and who are en¬ 
gaged in earnest conversation with the trans¬ 
figured Jesus, all must be attention on the 
part of the disciples as this glorious conversa¬ 
tion proceeds. They must be hanging on the 
lips of the speakers, drinking in every word, 
with their feelings stirred to their very depths, 
and with their hearts burning within them. 
How sad that we should find from the records 
of imperishable truth that “Peter and they 
that were with him were heavy with sleep.” 


THE SLEEPERS AND THEIR LOSS. 149 

It might have been considered almost impos¬ 
sible that, with such persons present and 
such a theme discussed, and amid such glory, 
they should have yielded to this weakness of 
our nature and become “heavy with sleep*'—* 
asleep when they might have been listening 
to a conversation that would have removed 
their ignorance, corrected their errors, en¬ 
lightened their understanding, strengthened 
their faith, and brightened their hopes—asleep 
when they might have been gazing on the 
glory of Christ, and hearing of that decease 
which was to be their life, and which was to 
open for them the gates to glory. Such are 
we. 

Christ exhibited to these three disciples 
his hjghesi ^glory on Tabor, and his lowest 
abasement in. G_ethsemane, and on both occa¬ 
sions he found them sleeping—sleeping when 
he was before them in his agony, and sleeping 
when he was before them in his triumph. 
Nothing, one would think, could have been 
more affecting to these disciples than the 
glories and the agonies of their Master; yet 
neither the one nor the other could keep them 
awake. They may indeed on this occasion 
have been overpowered with the glorious 


150 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

splendor, or they may have been weary with 
watching through the night; but whatever 
may have been the cause, their drowsy frame 
was a sad evidence of the weakness and frailty 
of human nature, even after it has become the 
subject of God’s renewing grace. 

It is not meant to be affirmed, for the 
phraseology of the narrative does not warrant 
the affirmation, that these favored disciples 
were -so overwhelmed with sleep throughout 
the scene that was presented on the mount as 
to render them incompetent witnesses of the 
glorious transaction; but the language does 
seem to imply and teach, that at some point in 
the vision they were overcome with slumber, 
and that during that sleeping time they were 
deprived of witnessing and of hearing more 
or less of the wondrous manifestations which 
might have been theirs to enjoy, had they 
been so exercised and interested as to cause 
sleep to depart from them. They do not 
record for our instruction any thing which 
they did not see, nor any thing which they 
did not hear. They do not give us the dream 
of three sleeping disciples, nor do they write 
a description of the phantasma of their own 
heated imagination; but they record what 


THE SLEEPERS AND THEIR LOSS. 151 


they saw and heard when they were awake. 
It was “when they were awake they saw the 
glory of Jesus and the two men who were 
with him.” How much more of that glory 
they might have seen, and how much more of 
that heavenly converse between Jesus and 
the celestial visitants they might have heard, 
if they had kept awake throughout, we cannot 
tell. 

But whatever they did deprive themselves 
of was both their loss and ours. Their weak¬ 
ness and frailty, and their consequent loss, 
have this lesson for us: the great need which 
the best of men have to pray to God for quick¬ 
ening grace, to make them not only alive, but 
lively in God’s service. How important that 
exhortation of the Saviour in the garden of 
Gethsemane: “Watch and pray, lest ye enter 
into temptation.” For if these three disciples, 
whom Paul calls “pillars” in the church, were 
unable to watch with Christ one hour, how 
much need have we to guard against spiritual 
lethargy and drowsiness, particularly when we 
are with God on the mount! How many 
blessed visions, which God may have prepared 
for us in the sanctuar}q may have passed 
unseen and unimproved, because we were 


152 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

“heavy with sleep,” perhaps that worst form 
of sleep, the sleep with open eyes, the sleep 
of the soul! And yet is it not worthy of 
note, that no word of reproof is recorded as 
escaping from the Master’s lips, though his 
favorite disciples were sleeping amid the glo¬ 
ries of Tabor ? And in the garden of GTeth- 
semane, where these same disciples slept 
again during the agony of the Saviour, he 
merely said, “ What, could ye not watch with 
me one hour ? Watch and pray, that ye enter 
not into temptation. The spirit indeed is 
willing, but the flesh is weak.” 

Thus does the Saviour bear with our in¬ 
firmities. No sooner does the reproof escape 
him for their untimely slumbers, than he 
strives to heal the wound which his words 
may have inflicted. “ He remembers that we 
are dust.” But, blessed be God, this dust is 
not a part of our everlasting portion. We 
shall be delivered from the burden of this 
flesh, and our willing spirit set free, shall be 
in joy and felicity. We shall be without a 
fetter and without a clog. We shall be active 
and devoted in heaven, never tired with its 
work, and never wearied with its enjoyments. 





Matt. 17:4: f ‘ Then answered Peter, and said unto Jesus, 
Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make 
here three tabernacles ; one for thee, and one for Moses, and 
one for Elias.” 

Mark 9:5, 6 : “And Peter answered and said to Jesus, 
Master, it is good for us to be here: and let us make three 
tabernacles; one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for 
Elias. For he wist not what to say; for they were sore 
afraid. ” 

Luke 9 :33 : “And it came to pass, as they departed from 
him, Peter said unto Jesus, Master, it is good for us to be 
here : and let us make three tabernacles; one for theo, and 
one for Moses, and one for Elias: not knowing what he 
said.” 


7 * 


































* V. 




« " 










































... '• '' 





















XIII. 


eter’s ^Proposition. 

“ Once I thought my mountain strong, 

Firmly fixed, no more to move; 

Then my Saviour was my song; 

Then my soul was filled with love. 

Those were happy, golden days, 

Sweetly spent in prayer and praise.” 

* s difficult to collect the thoughts 
VrVfrj of Peter from the words he used when 
Mw/ he awoke and beheld the supernatural 
spec tacle. They seem to indicate both 
frailty and piety, both infirmity and 
unselfishness. He would be at any labor to 
build a tabernacle or booth for his Master and 
his two heavenly visitants, and yet he would 
not do it without his Master’s consent. He 
would build one for each of those whom he 
most highly prized; and yet he speaks not of 
erecting one for himself. He was evidently be¬ 
wildered and dazzled by the splendor of the 
vision, and gave expression, in the high im¬ 
petuosity of his emotions, to thoughts of which 
he knew not the drift; for it is written, “he 



156 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


knew not what he said.” He felt that he 
would like to continue, if possible, on that 
mountain, and therefore said to Jesus: “Mas- 
( ter, it is good to be here.” There seems to 
' be in his words something of the spirit which 
induced him to say on another occasion, when 
our Lord had just announced his approaching 
death, “That be far from thee, Lord.” He 
shrank from the thought of the suffering and 
the shame ; and like him we fear to go through 
the gate of death, even though it prove to us 
the entrance to the path of life. We wish to 
abide here, and have heaven come down to us. 
This is not only our ignorance, but our sin ; 
for we must go through deep humility to ob¬ 
tain the crown of glory. 

If Peter had continued there, he could not 
have discharged the duties he owed to his 
family and his fellow-disciples, who were at 
the foot of the mount, and needed the Sav¬ 
iour’s presence and teaching as well as he. 
And should Christ remain absent from the 
great company of the redeemed in heaven, for 
whom a kingdom was prepared above, where 
all God’s children were to assemble with their 
Father and with their elder Brother ? 

* His request—if it implied that Christ 


PETEK’S PROPOSITION. 157 

and Moses and Elias should continue on that 
mount—was also impracticable. It was not 
reasonable to expect that Moses, the favored 
servant of the Lord, who had been before the 
throne for 1,500 years, should descend and 
dwell upon a barren mountain; nor that Elijah, 
who had been taken to heaven in a chariot of 
fire, should dwell in an earthly tabernacle 
again; and more than all, how could the Lord 
Jesus remain in that glory, and yet die for 
human guilt ? The conversation in which the 
three for whom Peter had proposed to build 
tabernacles had just been engaged must have 
been overlooked by the disciple, or have made 
but little impression upon his mind. Had not 
Christ descended from that mountain to die, 
Peter himself would never have been redeem¬ 
ed, and the hopes of mankind would have been 
blighted. 

How wretched, often, would be our condi¬ 
tion, if God should give us all we desire, or 
permit us to choose for ourselves. The crown 
cannot be won without the cros^: The splen¬ 
dor and joy of all our Tabors must soon be 
exchanged for the tears and the sadness of 
Gethsemane. In the garden of Joseph of 
Arimathea, the disciple and friend of Jesus, 


158 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

“ there was a sepulchre.’ 7 The sweetest inter¬ 
vals of joy which may be granted to us on the 
brightest spot of earth are not meant to detain 
us, but to strengthen us, that we may set out 
with brave hearts and with earnest feelings to 
tread the weary road of life, pilgrims and 
strangers, looking for the rest that remaineth 
for the people of God. 

But though these and other things may 
indicate the impropriety of Peter’s proposal, 
yet there was much in his language which was 
right and proper, and which evinced the good¬ 
ness of his heart. It was right that he should 
take pleasure in the glory of his Master, and 
wish that Christ should be universally hon¬ 
ored ; that men might witness on that moun¬ 
tain-summit the glory in which he himself de¬ 
lighted, and bow before his Lord. It was 
right that he should love the society of the 
blessed, and take pleasure in hearing the con¬ 
versation of the inhabitants of heaven. It was 
right that he should wish to be removed, as 
far as duty would permit, from the sins and 
sorrows of the world ; and since he had wit¬ 
nessed beneath that mountain, wherever he 
went, nothing but folly, vice, incredulity, and 
misery, it was both natural and right that he 


PETER’S PROPOSITION. 


159 


should desire to be with Christ, that he might 
see more of his glory, and more of the inhab¬ 
itants of heaven. On that mountain he might 
have been exempted from all trouble—from 
the snares of the Pharisees and from the revi- 
lings of the world. He asked no tabernacle 
for himself. He would be content to remain 
without any roof over his own head, provided 
his Master might be continued in his glory, and 
that he might enjoy the fellowship of the saints. 

This will be the very temper of heaven. 
When, through infinite grace, w^e have reached 
that blessed place, we shall exclaim, as Peter 
did, “Lord, it is good to be here. 77 It is al¬ 
ways good to be where Jesus is. He is the 
source of light and joy—the excellency, the 
consolation, the glory of his people Israel. 
“Wherever two or three 77 of his people “are 
met together in his name, 77 Jesus is with them, 
as he was with the disciples on the mount of 
Transfiguration. Like that mountain, each 
sanctuary, though it be little, is “apart 77 
from the world, and in a spiritual sense, above 
it. It is a place of intercourse with kindred 
minds—of hallowed instruction, where “Christ 
and him crucified 77 is the great theme. 

As the disciples had more glorious mani- 


160 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

festations of Jesus on Tabor, and saw more of 
his radiant countenance, glistering raiment, and 
effulgent brightness than they ever enjoyed be¬ 
fore, so nowhere is Jesus seen so clearly and 
beautifully as in his own house. He manifests 
himself there especially to his people as he does 
not unto the world. Many a time, when the 
child of God has had his heart enlarged and 
his mind enlightened, when the doctrine of 
Christ’s meritorious death has spoken peace 
to his conscience, and he has been led to know 
something of the communion of saints, in his 
fellowship with the church triumphant as well 
as the church militant, then has he felt in his 
heart what his lips may not have expressed: 
“ Lord, it is good to be here.” 

“I’ve seen thy glory and thy power 
Through all thy temple shine. 

My God, repeat that heavenly hour, 

That vision so divine.” 


Matthew 17 :5 : “While he yet spake, behold, a bright 
cloud overshadowed them.” 

Maek 9:7: “ And there was a cloud that overshadowed 
them.” 

Luke 9 :34 : “While he thus spake, there came a cloud 
and overshadowed them.” 














S 




\ 




















































































; 






























































XIV. 


Jhe 


j3RIGHT 


pYERSHADOWING 


PLOUD, 


* 4 Think of the cloud, the heavenly light, 

The cross of sovereign love! 

And oh, let faith and love unite 
To raise our souls above.” 

^ IGrHTS and shadows alternate, 
as regularly as day and night, in the 
Cujfef life of man. Delighted with the mag- 
-yppf nificence of that apocalypse, Peter 
perhaps was for staying on that hal¬ 
lowed ground ; and not knowing what he said, 
his lips uttered, “Let us make three taberna¬ 
cles/ 7 etc.; but while he yet spoke, a cloud 
overshadowed them. 

God has frequently manifested himself 
through the medium of a cloud. In his 
essence he is invisible, and dwells in light to 
which no man can approach, a light too daz¬ 
zling for mortal eyes, and hence he can be 
seen only through a cloud. “He holdeth 
back the face of his throne, and sprcadeth a 


164 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

cloud upon it.” When his presence was with 
Israel, it was in a pillar of cloud by day and 
of fire by night. When he gave the law on 
Sinai, he descended in a cloud. When he came 
down into the tabernacle and the temple, a 
cloud was the symbol of his presence. When 
the vision was vouchsafed to Ezekiel, it was a 
great cloud—a fire enfolding itself. When 
Jesus ascended to glory, a cloud received him 
out of sight; and when he shall come the sec¬ 
ond time without sin unto salvation, he will 
come with clouds, with power and great glory. 

But on this occasion, the cloud that over¬ 
shadowed the disciples was, as we are told by 
Matthew, a “bright” cloud, denoting perhaps 
the graciousness and clearness of the gospel 
dispensation over that of tiie legal and cere¬ 
monial. Not such a cloud as gathered on the 
summit of Horeb, nor such as constituted the 
blackness and darkness of Sinai; but a cloud, 
through which, “as a glass, darkly,” the dis¬ 
ciples might catch a glimpse of God, who 
“maketh the clouds his chariot,” and dark¬ 
ness a medium of transmitting light. 

This bright cloud that overshadowed the 
disciples might have been bestowed then in 
kindness, to soothe and to mitigate the intense 


THE OVERSHADOWING CLOUD. 165 

light by which Peter was dazzled. He was 
bewildered by the brightness, and a cloud 
came to intervene and subdue the otherwise 
insufferable glory. 

Or, this bright cloud may have been vouch¬ 
safed to separate Moses and Elias from the 
three disciples who longed to retain them as 
fellow-worshippers upon the mount. Or, more 
probably, it came as the accustomed attendant 
of the majesty of heaven; of God, who has 
now descended to put his public seal to the 
Messiahship of Jesus ; for a voice was heard 
from the excellent glory, “This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased.” 

We should keep in remembrance that there 
must always be a cloud in the way to glory. 
As the people of God were led through the 
wilderness to Canaan by the pillar of cloud 
and fire, so fe # w of his children now enter the 
kingdom of heaven without an attendant cloud, 
a cloud with its dark side, and a cloud also with 
its silver lining. 

The object for which the cloud is sent is 
various. Sometimes God overshadows a man 
with a cloud, reducing him from wealth to pov¬ 
erty, to make him think ; taking away his 
friends, to make him think; yea, smiting into 


166 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

dust the very darling of his heart, to make him 
think, to “make him tremble in himself, that 
he may rest in the day of trouble.” 

Nor does the cloud come to overshadow a 
man merely to bring conviction to his con¬ 
science. It attends him onward through life, 
and subserves the purposes of God and the 
interests of man in various ways. 

The bright cloud came between the disci¬ 
ples and the vision they had been contem¬ 
plating with so much rapture, and hid it from 
their sight. And thus is it to the disciples still. 
A Christian’s highest enjoyments are some¬ 
times put an end to by God himself. He may 
think that he has sinned away his previous 
privilege, or trifled it away, or by some 
means driven it away, and this is perhaps very 
generally the truth. But it is not always so. 
The intercepting cloud, like that which we are 
now considering, is sometimes of God’s send¬ 
ing. The vision has done its work, its ap¬ 
pointed, strengthening, comforting work; and 
that done, the vision is withdrawn. 

The two disciples on the way to Emmaus, 
had their Saviour long by their side, instruct¬ 
ing them, and making their very hearts burn 
within them. But no sooner had they recog- 


THE OVERSHADOWING CLOUD. 167 

nized him, and begun to rejoice in his presence, 
than, without any fault of theirs, he vanished 
out of their sight. 

You may have had a similar experience. 
Your sight of Jesus may have been trans¬ 
porting, and your enjoyment of his love 
beyond expression. You were almost in 
ecstacy during the continuance of the vision, 
but it soon passed away, and left you as men 
that dreamed. If this has been your experi¬ 
ence at any time, take comfort from the 
thought that whenever God intercepts our 
enjoyments, he has always something better 
in store for us—not something more joyous 
perhaps, but something more solid, durable, 
and useful. 

What can be better, you may ask, than the 
splendid vision here granted to Peter? The 
cloud that put an end to that vision brought 
something better, even the voice that came 
from the cloud. Peter might not have thought 
so at the time; but thirty years afterwards, 
looking lack at the scene, we find him refer¬ 
ring, not so much to the splendor of it—the 
shining face, the glittering raiment, the heav¬ 
enly attendants of the transfigured Lord—as 
to the testimony he and his fellow-disciples 


168 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

received on that mount to tlieir Lord: “This 
is my beloved Son, in whom I am Vvell 
pleased.” Twice he refers to the testimony, 
and in such a way as plainly to discover that 
it was the point in the transfiguration that, at 
that long distance of time, was uppermost in 
his memory, and most dearly cherished by his 
heart. 

And so it is frequently with the Christian 
now. God has given him some discovery of 
Christ which warms and delights his soul. 
Nothing, he thinks, can be more joyful and 
precious. But God throws a cloud over that 
discovery, so that he can enjoy it no longer. 
And like Peter and his companions, he is 
afraid, as he enters into the cloud. He thinks 
the Lord has turned against him, and is about 
to leave him comfortless.- But the truth is, he 
was in danger of building his happiness on the 
enjoyments granted to him, and taking up his 
rest in them , and of making them , rather than 
the Giver of them, his trust and confidence. 
Or, his enjoyment had a tendency, or would 
have had, if continued, to confine his view to 
one phase of the Saviour’s character, or to 
some one of his offices. The vision is there¬ 
fore removed, and the enjoyments pass away; 


THE OVERSHADOWING CLOUD. 169 


and after a little period of disquiet and per¬ 
plexity, he understands the dealings of the 
Lord with him. The Redeemer’s character is 
now impressed upon liis mind in all its lofti¬ 
ness, and in the great purpose for which he 
sustained it. He sees Christ in the character 
in which he most needs him, in which he shall 
to all eternity most adore and rejoice in him 
as “ the Beloved of the Father,” in whom we 
guilty sinners are accepted ; and so seeing 
him, the Christian thanks the God of all grace 
for interrupting for a time his delightful en¬ 
joyment, or rather, for bringing him by that 
interruption anew as a sinner to the might}" 
Saviour, beloved of the Father. So when we 
receive some extraordinary manifestations of 
the love of God, some foretastes of the prom¬ 
ised happiness, we must not expect the enjoy¬ 
ment to be uninterrupted or long continued. 
When a holy discourse or meditation has ele¬ 
vated our thoughts, or when in communicating 
at the table of the Lord, God has been pleased 
to visit us with communications of his love, 
and to meet us in the joy of our heart, we must 
not rely upon it that this will be permanent, 
or that our mind will continue thus soaring on 
the wings of faith and love. 

8 


Holy Mount. 


170 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Moses was not permitted to dwell on Mount 
Horeb, where he spoke with God face to face, 
nor upon Mount Pisgah, where he saw the 
land of promise. Nor was Paul allowed to 
remain in the third heavens, whither he was 
caught up and heard unspeakable words, which 
it was not lawful for him to utter; and the joy 
of the three disciples was soon turned into 
apprehension as the cloud came and overshad¬ 
owed them. 

Christians are liable, while they remain on 
earth, to such changes as these. There is sta¬ 
bility in the essentials of holiness. The grace 
of God implanted in the soul never dies. 
But the growth of it, the exercise of it, the 
comforts that flow from it, are alike liable to 
change, and do change, and such changes are 
profitable for our souls. 

Our weak eyes cannot long endure the lus¬ 
tre of the heavenly glory; a cloud must come 
and overshadow—a cloud so chill and dark 
and boding that, like the disciples, we may 
“fear as we enter into the cloud;” and yet, 
out of that cloud, so vain were their fears, 
there came a voice to confirm their confidence 
in Christ. 

Travellers tell us that there is something 


THE OVERSHADOWING CLOUD. 171 

melancholy to the feelings in the unbroken sun¬ 
shine of an Italian sky. And if unbroken 
sunshine is an emblem of uninterrupted pros¬ 
perity, what a melancholy sight is an individ¬ 
ual who has seen no darkening changes, for “if 
ye be without chastisement, whereof all are 
partakers, then are ye bastards and not sons.” 
“ Moab hath been at ease from his youth, and 
he hath settled on his lees, and hath not been 
emptied from vessel to vessel, neither hath he 
gone into captivity, though his taste remained 
in him, and his scent is not changed.” One 
reason why multitudes of persons remain un- 
. converted is, that their history resembles in 
some measure that of Moab. They have ex¬ 
perienced a continuance of prosperity—no 
change of circumstance, no stroke of adver¬ 
sity. No condition in life is so morally dan¬ 
gerous as that in which there is no change. 
Seldom indeed does undisturbed prosperity 
lead to piety. When do the thoughts most 
turn to God? Is it when the sun shines 
brightly, or when the sky is darkened and 
the tempest raging? Experience and Scrip¬ 
ture both testify that it is when they are in 
trouble that men do seek God early. Trouble 
has a natural tendency to lead men to God. 


172 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

It is often in seasons of trial and of gloom that 
God gives to his own children the sweetest 
tokens of his compassion and love—“ staying 
his rough wind in the day of his east wind 
giving “songs in the night/’ and revealing 
himself as “a very present help in the time of 
need.” 

The soul is most in danger, not when, like 
some gallant vessel, she is being tossed on a 
stormy sea; then, when the alarm is sounded, 
there will probably be an appeal to Him who 
is ever at hand to guide the helm and tran¬ 
quillize the stormy element; but the safety of 
the soul is most jeoparded when all is out¬ 
wardly peaceful, no tempest without to break 
the moral slumber, and no urgent necessity 
felt for the presence of Christ. 

Painful as our changes are, damping to our 
hopes as is the cloud overshadowing our glory, 
it is with a merciful design that each and all 
are sent. Where there is no change there is 
commonly no advance in piety; whereas it must 
be our own fault if the experience of vicissi¬ 
tude wean us not from earth, and move us not 
to lay hold on eternal life. Come then change, 
coine trial, come disappointment, come be¬ 
reavement, come clouds of sorrow, come what- 


THE OVERSHADOWING CLOUD. 173 

ever may deliver from the thraldom of sin, 
whatever may sanctify, whatever may ripen 
for glory, whatever may save from the doom 
which the prophet pronounced: “And it shall 
come to pass at that time, that I will search 
Jerusalem as with lighted candles, and punish 
the men that are settled on their lees, that say 
in their heart, the Lord will not do good, nei¬ 
ther will he do evil.” 








Luke 9 :34: “And they feared as they entered into the 






























s 






























XV. 


J"he Reeling of the Pisciples 

ENTERING THE p^OUD. 

“Ye fearful saints, fresli courage take; 

The clouds you so much dread 
Are big with mercy, and shall break 
In blessings on your head.” 

f p^LOUD is the emblematic word 
for sorrow, for gloom, for sadness, 
threatened evil, or departed good. 
It embosoms the lightning, it por¬ 
tends the storm, it darkens the sun¬ 
light, and hides the directing stars. God 
himself has chosen it as the sign indicative of 
his presence: “I come unto thee in a thick 
cloudand his assurance is that he dwells 
with him who is of a broken and a contrite 
heart. Many a suffering believer has realized 
his presence in the cloud that has shadowed 
him. It was there God met him, as he did 
Moses in the very bosom of the cloud, and held 
there intimate communion with him—commu¬ 
nion unbroken and unwitnessed by the world. 
8 * 


178 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

But though sorrow and suffering have thus 
proved to many the shades in which God 
has met and blessed them, who has not been 
afraid as he entered that shadow which to 
him may have betokened the shadow of 
death ? Why is it that we contemplate with 
dread the thing that proves ultimately to be 
fraught with good ? Why do we shrink tim¬ 
idly and mistrustfully from the very path that 
leads to our greatest happiness? The great 
dramatist wrote an important truth when he 
said, “ Conscience doth make cowards of us 
all.” We know that we have sinned, and 
that we deserve to suffer; and therefore when 
any danger, real or imaginary, impends, we 
are ready with Joseph’s brethren to acknowl¬ 
edge, “We are verily guilty.” 

When man was in his unfallen state, ere 
his robes of innocence were rent by disobedi¬ 
ence, when love to God pervaded his heart, 
God walked and communed with him, and man 
enjoyed happiness that was unalloyed. But 
since that “ first transgression,” whenever God 
has appeared in any mode to the children of 
men, they have stood in awe of him, feeling 
that they were sinners; and instead of coming 
into his presence as children to a Father, in 


FEELING OF THE DISCIPLES. 179 

love and joy, they have come as criminals into 
the presence of their Judge, with fear and trem¬ 
bling and dread. This has been the case with 
even the best of men. 

When Moses, beloved of God, saw the Di¬ 
vine presence indicated by the bush burning 
but not consumed, and heard the command to 
take off the shoes from his feet, for the place 
whereon he stood was holy ground, he drew 
near, we are told, with trembling, and hid his 
face, for he was afraid to look upon God. 

So the people of Israel whom Moses led, 
when they came to Mount Sinai where God 
wrote his law with his own finger on the two 
tables of stone, and when he spake face to face 
with Moses in the hearing of the people, amid 
blackness and darkness and the sound of a 
trumpet and the voice of words accompanied 
with thunder and lightning, did exceedingly 
fear and quake. 

So Elijah, when he was on Mount Car¬ 
mel with the priests of Baal, and those priests 
had offered their sacrifice and called upon 
their god to appear and consume it, but called 
in vain, then Elijah called upon his God, and 
He sent down fire and consumed the sacrifice; 
and it is recorded that great fear- came upon 


180 JESUS ON THE HOLY-MOUNT. 

the people, and they cried with one voice, 
“The Lord, he is God! the Lord, he is 
God!” 

Manoah concluded that he must die, since 
he had seen God face to face. Paul fell down 
before him, unable to sustain the brightness of 
his glory ; and even the beloved disciple in 
Patmos, when he had a glimpse of the glori¬ 
fied Redeemer, fell at his feet as dead. 

Once, as we have seen, man could con¬ 
verse with his Maker face to face; but since 
he became a sinner, he has been haunted by 
a sense of guilt, and has been incapacitated for 
so high an honor. The feeling, therefore, of 
the disciples in entering the cloud, was the 
effect not only of weakness and ignorance, but 
of a sense of sinfulness. “ They feared as they 
entered into the cloud .' 7 

Why should they fear ? If all were right 
with Peter and James and John, they should 
have rejoiced rather than feared. But they 
were frail, ignorant, and sinful—therefore they 
trembled when God’s glory came upon them. 
And it is also worthy of notice, that the bright¬ 
er the discoveries men have had of God, the 
more have they been humbled in the dust be¬ 
fore him. Abraham and Moses no sooner 


FEELING OF THE DISCIPLES. 181 

caught a glimpse of him, than they hid their 
faces, from a consciousness of their own ex¬ 
treme unworthiness. Job, though one of the 
most perfect of men, confessed himself vile, 
and repented himself in dust and ashes. Yea, 
even the seraphim before the throne veil their 
faces and their feet, confessing thereby that 
they are unworthy either to behold or to serve 
God. And would not a view of the Lord and 
his glory make every reader of these words 
cry out as did Isaiah of old, “Woe is me, for 
I am undone ; for I am a man of unclean lips.” 

A discovery of created things may puff us 
up ; but a sight of God himself cannot but 
abase us in the dust. This one thing should 
always be kept in remembrance, that a day is 
coming when the most stout-hearted and im¬ 
penitent sinner will tremble before him. If 
Peter and James and John, the favored dis¬ 
ciples of the Master, “feared as they entered 
into the cloud” on the mount where stood the 
transfigured Saviour—if John, who had lain 
on the bosom of his Lord, and was himself so 
eminently holy, so highly beloved—if he fell 
at the Redeemer’s feet as dead when that Re¬ 
deemer appeared to him in his celestial vest¬ 
ments, what will his enemies do in the day of 


182 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

judgment, when he shall come with clouds, and 
every eye shall see him ? If when God spake 
from Sinai the Israelites were so terrified as to 
desire that he should not speak to them in 
such a way any more, and Moses himself “ ex¬ 
ceedingly feared,” how will the wicked trem¬ 
ble in that day when Jesus shall appear in 
glory, as the appointed Judge of human kind ? 
They may laugh and despise that Saviour now, 
but then they shall call upon the rocks to fall 
on them, and the mountains to hide them from 
the face of Him who sitteth upon the throne 
and from the wrath of the Lamb. 

It is true that the disciples upon the holy 
mount had no need to fear as they entered the 
cloud. Jesus was with them as their Friend, 
the glorified saints were about them; yea, 
heaven itself was open, and the voice of the 
Father heard speaking in love ; yet they 
feared. Often is it so with us. We have 
lessons to learn from every thing recorded in 
God’s holy book; and there is a lesson for us 
here. 

We are led by the providence of God 
somewhere, and as if by the very hand of the 
Saviour: we may not know where we are go¬ 
ing nor what we are to see; but there seems 


FEELING OF THE DISCIPLES. 183 

to be something overhanging us which we can¬ 
not understand, and something about to hap¬ 
pen which, with our dimmed vision, we can¬ 
not foresee; and although we know that it is 
God who is leading us, yet we cannot but 
tremble as we proceed. We ought to take 
the comfort of the thought that Jesus is with 
us, and rest peacefully upon his promise, 
“When thou goest through the waters, I will 
be with thee, and they shall not overflow 
thee . 77 The saints in glory have passed 
through before us, and are witnesses to what¬ 
ever may befall us, while the voice of the Fa¬ 
ther may be heard acknowledging his Son, 
and owning us in him in whom he is well 
pleased. Let us ever remember that we need 
not fear, wherever we are, if Jesus has led us 
there, and if we are doing the things which 
are pleasing to him. 

And how often does the result prove the 
the very opposite of our fears—even an occa¬ 
sion of rejoicing and reassurance. A cloud 
gathers around us. The heavens are ob¬ 
scured. We behold the gloom thickening 
which seems to threaten us with darkness 
and obscurity, and we say as we enter the 
cloud, “Trembling hath taken hold upon me, 


184 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

and horror hath overtaken me.” And yet 
what is the result? From that very cloud 
there comes a voice which says, “This is my 
beloved Son.” 

It is in the hour of sorrow that we com¬ 
monly know more of the preciousness of Christ, 
and that he is more clearly revealed to us as 
having borne our griefs, as well as having 
offered himself for our sins: The cloud that 
seems charged with thunder melts away from 
the sky, and there falls on us nothing but the 
gracious dew which refreshes and nourishes 
the plants of the Lord. “They that sow in 
tears shall reap in joy.” . We may fear as we 
enter into the cloud, but when it passes away , 
we find ourselves alone with Christ, though 
before there might have been with us Moses 
and Elias. Is it not then a blessed cloud 
which, by removing from us human teachers, 
leaves us with Christ, whose teaching is only 
truth, and whose friendship is eternal life ? 


Matt. 17:5: “And behold a voice out of the cloud, 
which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well 
pleased ; hear ye him.” 

Luke 9 :35 : “And there came a voice out of the cloud, 
saying, This is my beloved Son : hear him.” 












* 

















































XVI. 




IS IS MY 


P 


ELOVED 




ON. 



“It is the Father’s voice that cries 
’Mid the deep silence cff the skies : 

‘ This is my beloved Son! 

In him I joy, in him alone.’ ” 

- NE great design of the transfig¬ 
uration, the bright cloud which over¬ 
shadowed the disciples, and the voice 
from that cloud, was the solemn in¬ 
auguration of Christ as the Lord’s 
Anointed, in the presence of his three chosen 
witnesses; and his formal introduction into 
office as both the Teacher and Redeemer of 
the world. 

The designation of prophets to the sacred 
office under the former dispensation, was often 
accompanied with circumstances peculiarly 
solemn and /sublime. Moses received his com¬ 
mission from amid the burning but uncon¬ 
sumed bush; Isaiah was separated to the work 
by a vision of God “ high and lifted up,” with 
a train which filled the temple, and encircled 


188 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

by veiled and adoring seraphim ; and Ezekiel 
was not sent forth to prophesy to a rebellious 
nation, until from the banks of the river of 
Chebar he had been permitted to see the 
whirlwind and the brightness and the wheels 
of God’s chariots rolling, and the ministers of 
his providence flapping their anointed wings, 
till the noise was tis the noise of great waters, 
as the voice of the Almighty. 

Yet in none of these transactions do we 
see any thing like the impressiveness and 
majesty which mark the solemn transfiguration 
of our Lord. Those men, as servants, only 
saw the brightness of the Father’s glory. 
Christ as a Son was himself that brightness. 
Those did exceedingly fear and quake at the 
awful solemnities with which they found them¬ 
selves unexpectedly surrounded. Christ, on 
the contrary, prepares for his transfiguration; 
in calm and solemn majesty puts on his robe 
of lig ht, and holds high communion with the 
two glorified spirits of the past on ‘ ‘ the things 
which shall be hereafter.” 

Thus was Christ more openty sealed and 
sanctified to the prophetic and priestly office. 
Angels had announced his birth, and the de¬ 
scending Spirit had put honor on his baptism; 


“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.” 189 

but Christ must be shown to have more glory 
than Moses, and more of authority and power 
than all “ the goodly fellowship of the proph¬ 
ets.” The times were past in which God had 
spoken to our fathers by the prophets; he 
would now speak to us by his Son. “ Those,” 
he seems to say, “ were my servants whom at 
sundry times and in divers manners I instruct¬ 
ed to make known my will to the people; but 
He whom ye now see radiant in all his trans¬ 
figured splendor, 1 this is my beloved Son: 
hear himJ ” 

Let us then think of the relationship in 
which Christ stands to God the Father, “My 
beloved Son.” When God the Father speaks 
of God the Son, there must be something in 
his words which passes our comprehension. 
When an infinite Being speaks of an infinite, 
we may be sure there is something in the lan¬ 
guage beyond our fathoming. We cannot 
fully comprehend these words, “My beloved 
Son.” We can only look a little way into the 
depths of the glorious declaration, and those 
few thoughts which we may entertain respect¬ 
ing it ought to be enough to act with great 
power upon our minds and hearts. 

Jesus is often termed in Scripture the Ser- 


190 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

yant of God, and so he is as Mediator, and 
the dearest of servants. He has glorified 
God more than any creature could glorify 
him. He has obeyed him as no other being 
has obeyed him. He gives to the divine Be¬ 
ing more honor and glory than all his crea¬ 
tures ; and therefore it was said of him, “Thou 
art my servant in whom I will be glorified.” 
But He was more than a servant. All others 
have been mere servants ; but Christ was more 
than they. Moses was but a servant when he 
was appointed the lawgiver of Israel, and the 
typical and temporary mediator between God 
and that nation. Angels are but his minis¬ 
ters, whom he has made to please and serve 
him. But Christ, we are told in the first chap¬ 
ter of Hebrews, is more than this, “for to 
which of the angels said he at any time, Thou 
art my Son; this day have I begotten thee ?” 
All his intelligent creatures are his sons by 
creation , and sinners are his apostate sons. 
They have become children of wrath. All 
the disciples of Jesus Christ are his sons by 
adoption, but only by adoption. Jesus Christ 
is God’s Son in a sense infinitely superior to 
any of these. He is his Son by nature, dis¬ 
tinct from the Father, and yet so intimately 


“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.” 191 

connected with him as to be able to say, “I 
and my Father are one’’—one in essence, one 
in dignity , one in counsel , one in work, one in 
glory. 

But the term “Son/ 7 as applied to Jesus 
by the Father, we cannot clearly nor fully 
comprehend: not a Son in like manner with 
angels or saints, but “his only begotten Son/ 7 
possessing the express image of the divine 
Person, having communion with him in all his 
infinite perfections. “ He thought it not rob¬ 
bery to be equal with God/ 7 “was in the be¬ 
ginning with God, and was God. 77 The word 
“Son/ 7 when applied to Christ, was under¬ 
stood by the Jews, who best understood their 
own language and allusions, to denote essen¬ 
tial deity, for we read John 5:18: “ The Jews 
sought the more to kill him, because he not 
only had broken the Sabbath, but said also 
that God was his Father/ 7 his own peculiar 
Father, as the original has it, “making him¬ 
self equal with God. 77 And so he did, for lie 
is “the brightness of the Father’s glory/ 7 and 
because he is God , “the Father, when he 
bringeth his First-Begotten into the world, 
saith, Let all the angels of God worship him. 77 

What a blessed and consoling thought, 


192 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


then, have we here. Jesus our Saviour is 
God! We have a divine and an all-precious 
Saviour. We need the everlasting arms around 
us, and the attributes of Deity to shelter us. 
We require omnipotent power as well as in- 
lexhaustible love to constitute a Saviour ade¬ 
quate to the rescue of one soul from the ruins 
of the fall, and the restoration of that soul to 
fellowship with God. And, blessed be God, 
he provided that Saviour for us in the person 
of his own Son, of a nature equal to himself, 
who came into the world not only to save men, 
but to glorify his Father; and well might that 
Father, when he designed signally to attest 
the greatness of the Mediator, send a voice 
from the excellent glory with no other procla¬ 
mation than these simple words, “ This is my 
beloved Son.” 

Christ is not only God’s Son, but he is his 
beloved Son. How much the Father loves 
the Son is not for us to know. We cannot 
know it. God, having an infinite nature, is 
capable of infinite love; and Christ also hav¬ 
ing an infinite nature, has infinite worthiness 
of being loved; and when God the Father 
with his infinite nature loves God the Son, 
who is infinitely worthy of love, that love 


“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.” 193 

must be beyond our knowledge and beyond 
all thought. 

G-od so loved vile rebels, proud, hard¬ 
hearted sinners, that he has given them Christ, 
his Spirit, pardon, peace, purity, eternal glory. 
What, then, must be the love he bears to his 
infinitely excellent Son, to Jesus, who has 
infinite loveliness — qualifications infinitely 
worthy of being loved? “I was by Him,” 
says Jesife, speaking of the Father, “as one 
brought up with him ; I was daily his delight, 
rejoicing always before him.” 

What honor then do we see here conferred 
upon Christ! They are all illustrious perso¬ 
nages who are here assembled upon the mount. 
But Christ is the chief. The law did him hom¬ 
age in the person of Moses, by whom it was 
received and published. Th e prophets did him 
homage in the person of Elijah, the most zeal¬ 
ous, courageous, and honored of all that broth¬ 
erhood. The gospel did him homage in Peter, 
James, and John, the favored representatives 
of the chosen apostles, who were soon to pro¬ 
claim it to the ends of the earth; and heaven 
itself did him homage by investing his person 
with celestial splendor, and causing a voice to 
be heard from the excellent glory. Jesus had 
9 


Holy Mount. 


194 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

previously declared to the Jews, when speak¬ 
ing of the Father, “No man hath seen his 
shape, or heard his voice at any time.” But 
now, as at his baptism, and again when he 
prayed, “ Father, glorify thy name,” now , for 
the express honor and glory of the Son, there 
was a marked departure from the ordinary 
events. 

The voice from the excellent glory was 
doubtless the voice of the first person of the 
Trinity attesting the divine mission and Son- 
ship of the second. It was the infinite Father, 
coming forth from his secret pavilion, pro¬ 
claiming his complacency in the Son of his 
bosom, and avowing himself well pleased with 
the purpose and progress of his sublime un¬ 
dertaking on behalf of our perishing race. It 
was God’s own distinctive testimony to the 
Messiahship of his Son, pointing to him as that 
divine Being, that one Mediator in whom all 
prophecies and promises met, were illustrated 
and fulfilled, and before whom every human 
creature, though he were illustrious as Moses 
and Elijah, must fall into the shade. He , and 
He alone, is “ my beloved Son.” As it was on 
Tabor’s mount, so it must be now in every 
temple and in every heart. Every niche must 


“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.” 195 

be emptied of its idol, that Christ, the only- 
begotten and well-beloved of the Father, may 
be all and in all. 

And we are assured by this beloved Son, 
that he loves his people as God loves him. 
“As the Father hath loved me, so have I 
loved you.” 

The Father’s love to his Son was from ever¬ 
lasting. There never was a period when God 
did not love Jesus, because that love was eter¬ 
nal, coexistent with his deity. Every mani¬ 
festation of that love given in time, was but 
an expression of a love that had existed from 
all eternity. Just so does Christ love his peo¬ 
ple. There never has been a period when he 
did not love them. It was his everlasting love 
which led him to endure the cross and despise 
its shame, in order to save his people from 
their sins. 

The Father’s love to the Son is without 
measure —boundless, and has been shown to 
be so by the gifts which he has bestowed upon 
him. He has given him the' Spirit without 
measure. He has given him all things. He 
has committed all judgment to the Son. Jesus 
Christ is Lord of all. So is Christ’s love to 
his people without measure. It knows no 


196 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

limits, and can know no end. It is unbounded, 
unsearchable. Its heights and depths and 
lengths and breadths are infinite. An angel’s 
mind cannot conceive and an angel’s tongue 
cannot express it. 

The Father’s love to his Son is without 
change. This is the Father’s character: “With 
whom there is no variableness nor shadow of 
turning.” True, he did not seem to hear his 
prayer in dark G-ethsemane; but he did hear 
and answer it, for an angel soothed His bitter 
agony and strengthened him from heaven. 
True, his love seemed to be withdrawn from 
him when hanging upon the accursed tree ; but 
the Father loved him always, and the appa¬ 
rent suspension of the Father’s love was the 
necessary means of accomplishing his purpose 
of love to the Saviour himself. 

So Christ’s love to his people is unchange¬ 
able—“the same yesterday, to-day, and for 
ever.” There may be and there are times 
• and seasons in the experience of God’s people, 
when the Lord seems to withdraw his love, 
but it is not so. He may and will try the 
righteous, just as he tried his servant Job ; 
but his own declaration is, “The mountains 
shall depart, and the hills be removed, but 


“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.” 197 

my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither 
shall the covenant of my peace be removed, 
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.” 

The Fathers love for the Son is without 
end. This he has shown by exalting him to his 
throne as the reward of his humiliation, giv 
ing him a name which is above every name, 
that at the name of Jesus every knee should 
bow, and every tongue confess that he is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father. As the Fa¬ 
ther’s love began in eternity, or, rather, never 
had a beginning, so it will be swallowed up in 
eternity, unchangeable and unending. 

So Christ’s love to his people endures for 
ever. “His gifts and calling are without 
repentance.” Having loved his own, he loves 
them unto the end, “ and he will raise them 
up at the last day.” What a sweet thought 
to the Christian, that nothing can “separate 
us from the love of God which is in Christ 
Jesus our Lord.” 

If God thus loves his Son, and if the Son 
thus loves those who believe on him, ought 
not this beloved Son of God to be beloved by 
you and by me and by all ? He is the infinite 
God, before whose glorious throne the sera¬ 
phim veil their faces, who dwelt in his Fa- 


198 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

tlier’s bosom from eternity, as beloved by that 
Father in lowliness, as he was and is now upon 
his throne. If God loves Christ, oh, do you 
love Christ also, and your heart and the heart 
of God will meet in Christ, and God will be 
one with you. Without Christ there is noth¬ 
ing but enmity between God and the soul, but 
with him all is love and peace. Oh, how aw¬ 
ful is the condition of that dying, ruined soul 
that bears no love to Jesus! “If any man 
love not the Lord Jesus Christ,” says Paul, 
“let him be Anathema Maranatha ”—let him 
be accursed. 

God best knows the just proportions of 
guilt and punishment, and he has subjected this 
sin to this dreadful curse. But if you are con¬ 
scious that you do not love the Lord Jesus 
Christ, and if it is sincerely your grief, and if 
you earnestly wish it were otherwise, instead 
of wasting your time in fruitless speculations, 
offer your humble, earnest supplications to the 
God of all grace that he, who only can do it, 
would direct your heart into the love of Christ; 
and that though you may have been so many 
years a lover of the world, of pleasure, of your¬ 
self, and of sin, he would transform you into the 
affectionate, devoted disciple of Jesus Christ. 


“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON.” 199 

What a precious truth have we, therefore, 
in this first part of this glorious declaration 
made by the voiee from the cloud: 4 ‘This is 
my beloved Son.” Our finite faculties will 
only permit us to go a little way in the con¬ 
sideration of the love which the Father bears 
to the Son. But it must be an infinite love, 
for the Father is capable of yielding such, and 
the Son is .worthy of receiving such. 

It is a love so great, that the Son is privy 
to all the Father’s counsels, and is never ab¬ 
sent from them. It is a love so-great, that 
Christ is accorded a seat upon the throne of 
the universe, and the universal and eternal 
homage of all the most glorious creatures that 
exist is but a just recompense for what he has 
accomplished. 

It is a* love so great that every friend of 
Jesus, though once a hell-doomed transgres¬ 
sor, becomes for his sake at once a friend, a 
child of God, and an heir of glory. 

It is a love so great that no intercession 
He ever makes for the worst and the weak¬ 
est upon earth loses its effect, but each for 
whom He intercedes is accepted, pardoned, 
and blessed. 

It is love so great, that if any man love 


200 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

not Christ, he becomes the object of God’s 
eternal curse. God will never permit an 
intelligent being to live and die indiffer¬ 
ent to this incarnate Saviour without absolute 
ruin. Every man who rejects Christ, or even 
neglects him, will find his course terminate in 
despair. God so loves his beloved Son, that 
he cannot endure the slightest dishonor to 
him; and woe to any man, anywhere, who 
dares to put God’s love to Christ to the proof 
by living and dying in indifference, and await¬ 
ing his sentence at the judgment-seat. 

But this love “passeth knowledge/’ It is 
beyond the grasp of our finite minds. We can 
only sit on the shore of the shoreless sea, and 
gather a few pebbles to gratify our childish 
hearts; but the unsounded depths are away 
before and beneath us, and the voice of God 
is heard saying, “ Who can by searching find 
out God? who can find out the Almighty unto 
perfection?” “ This is my beloved Son.” 


Matt. 17 :5 : “In wLom I am well pleased.” 



9 













































































































































XVII. 


"JN yyHOM j AM WELL PLEASED.” 

* ‘ Beloved of the Father—thou 
To whom the saints and angels bow, 

Immanuel, Jesus, Saviour, come, 

Make in these sinful hearts thy home. ” 

* ERE is another blessed truth which 
jually “passeth” our “ knowledge.” 
Te cannot know or fathom the na- 
ire of that contentment or compla¬ 
cency with which God the Father 
views the Son. Between them there is a per¬ 
fect oneness of perfection and will. The Fa¬ 
ther delights in the Son, and the Son delights 
in the Father. God said, when the Word 
created the earth, “It is very good,” because 
from the things which were made we could 
learn his “ eternal power and godhead.” But 
the most perfect reflection of God, the only 
unstained mirror of his glory, is Jesus Christ. 
He was “ God manifest in the flesh.” All 
that man’s eye can see of God is to be seen in 
Christ. All that man’s ear can hear of God 




204 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

is to be heard from Christ. The only way 
to learn what God is, and what he is to us, is’ 
to study that mirror which reflects most purely 
his glory, arid to listen to that oracle which 
utters most exactly his pure and spiritual 
voice*; and this miracle and that oracle are to 
be found in Jesus Christ, God’s beloved Son, 
in whom he has been, is, and shall be well 
pleased. 

But we apprehend that it is with Christ in 
his mediatorial capacity that God is especially 
“well pleased.” He is well pleased with him 
as God-man, in the purity of his human nature, 
in his holy, sinless, and undefiled life, in the 
benevolence of his mission, in his perfect obe¬ 
dience, in his sacrifice, resurrection, ascen¬ 
sion, glorification, intercession,—all were, and 
are, and shall be well pleasing to the Father. 

Jesus undertook the most difficult, the most 
compassionate, the most blessed work which 
the universe has seen or can see to all eter¬ 
nity. There can never be such a work again 
as Jesus undertook to accomplish for us. And 
he did his work well. God is well pleased 
with him for the accomplishment of our sal¬ 
vation. 

He is well pleased with hitn because, as 


“IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.” 205 

Mediator , he magnified all the attributes of the 
godhead. Under the Jewish dispensation, God 
gave many demonstrations of his sovereignty 
and might, but he never gave in one person 
a visible manifestation of all his attributes. 
There were thrilling voices and burning words 
in Isaiah’s imagery, but there was no form, 
no figure, and no similitude. It remained for 
Christ, the express image of the Father, to 
assume human nature, and to become the per¬ 
fect portrait of the Father for the children of 
men to behold; so perfect that he could truly 
say, “ He that hath seen me hath seen the Fa¬ 
ther.” 

Christ revealed all that can be seen or un¬ 
derstood of God. He stood in the midst of an 
evil generation; subject indeed to all its sin¬ 
less infirmities, but still manifestly a Being of 
another sphere, gifted with omniscience and' 
endowed with omnipotence. He was the glo¬ 
rious personification of all that our minds, in 
their highest and holiest musings, can ascribe 
to God. If we think of him as the sublime 
and tender Jehovah—the holy, mighty, and 
merciful One, possessed of the immensity of 
omnipotence and the yearnings of infinite com¬ 
passion, we have only to look to the beloved 


206 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

Son as he trod this vale of tears, and we see 
all exhibited in him. 

When we behold foul spirits shrinking 
away at his approach, and stormy seas hush¬ 
ing themselves into deep slumbers at his word, 
and disease and death giving up at his com¬ 
mand the wasting body and the mouldering 
form—when we behold briny tears falling 
from eyes which had no sins of their own for 
which to weep—when we know that soft and 
moving words were meekly uttered in reply 
to tierce revilings, and invitations to repent¬ 
ance and promises of forgiveness fell amid 
scoffing and hardened multitudes —then we 
behold such a demonstration of power, such 
an exhibition of mercy, such a display of wis¬ 
dom, such a manifestation of purity, such an 
exercise of forbearance and long-suffering, and 
in a word, such a representation of the ever- 
living God as was never before given to man. 

Bright and luminous as all former displays 
of his glory might have been, yet all have 
no glory by reason of the glory of this which 
excelleth, and are lost in this superior blaze, 
as the sun when he rises puts out the stars of 
night. And because of this marvellous dis¬ 
closure of himself which the Son makes to 


“IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.” 207 

fallen man and to the intelligent universe, the 
Father exultingly declares from the cloud on 
the holy mount, “This is my beloved Son, in 
whom I am well pleased.” 

One other thought may, however, bring 
out this truth more clearly. Not only did 
Christ in his nature and in his life manifest 
all the Father's attributes, but by his obedience , 
sufferings , and death , he glorified these attributes. 
Had no Mediator interposed when Adam fell, 
so far as we can gather from Scripture, not 
one of his descendants could have escaped 
the bitter pangs of eternal death. And had 
all his descendants perished in their iniqui¬ 
ties, so perfectly just would have been their 
doom, that no tongue could have moved against 
God, and every mouth must have been stopped. 
And yet God has derived more glory from the 
scheme of redemption than if all his fallen 
creatures had been reserved in chains of dark¬ 
ness to the judgment of the great day. He 
has more glory from his righteous law, as it 
was obeyed in all its precepts by Christ, than 
from the punishment of all who broke it— 
more glory from God's hatred of sin, as it was 
seen in not sparing his own Son—the bruising 
and putting to grief of his only begotten and 


208 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

well-beloved Son—than in actually casting 
away the creatures of perdition ; more glory 
from the purity, justice, power, and wisdom 
displayed in the restoration of man by the sec¬ 
ond Adam than from the destruction of man 
through the disobedience of the first. And if 
so, who will deny that all that Christ did and 
suffered on earth brought, according to his an¬ 
gelic birth-song, “Glory to God in the high¬ 
est ,’ 7 as well as “on earth peace and good¬ 
will to men.” 

"Who can survey “ mercy and truth met to¬ 
gether,” “righteousness and peace having kiss¬ 
ed each other ’’—who can behold cherubim and 
seraphim bending over the gospel covenant, 
desiring to search and scrutinize the mysteries 
of the glorious combination, “a just God and 
a Saviour”—“just and yet a Justifier,” and 
not perceive that the Son crucified is the Fa¬ 
ther glorified; that Christ derided, buffeted,, 
and slain for men is God exalted, honored, 
and vindicated; that salvation through blood 
sprinkled and righteousness upheld is a centre 
towards which all God’s attributes converge, 
and in which they meet as in a burning focus, 
forming at once the illustration of the words, 
“ God is light, and in him is no darkness at 


“IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.” 209 

alland the explanation of the emerald rain¬ 
bow which encircles Jehovah’s throne. 

Yes, Christ stood among men, the ex¬ 
press image of his Father’s person ; and he 
actually died among men, not more as the 
Restorer of his fallen creatures than as the 
Yindicator of the insulted Creator ; not more 
as the Deliverer from sin than the Manifester 
of the magnificence of God—the Magnifier, in 
his mediatorial capacity, of all his attributes. 

And while such vast results, involving the 
honor of Him who sitteth on the circle of the 
heavens, were to follow from the mission in 
which Christ was engaged, and which was fast 
hurrying him forward to a triumphant issue— 
shall we marvel that the voifie of congratula- 
tiojLJwa^heardr^pronouncing such words as 
these : “This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased ?” 

Nor was the Father well pleased with his 
Son merely because he magnified all his attri¬ 
butes, but because he also met and satisfied all 
the necessities of man. There is need of but 
few words to show the adaptation of the work 
of the Saviour to the wants of the sinner. 
Man, by nature, lies under condemnation; but 
Christ endured that condemnation, “being 



210 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

made a curse for us.” Man, even when freed 
from condemnation, has no power to attain 
unto a righteousness acceptable in the sight 
of God; but Christ, by his obedience unto 
death, wrought out a righteousness not for 
himself, but for all who should believe on him. 
Man, though pardoned and accepted as right¬ 
eous, is yet unfit, through the pollution and 
dominion of sin, to enter into association with 
the undefiled company of heaven ; but Christ, 
by his death, purchased' the Spirit, and as a 
risen and glorified Saviour, intercedes with 
the Father to obtain the Spirit, by whose in¬ 
fluence the justified man is sanctified, so that 
he who before had a title to.the inheritance, 
acquires a fitness for entering into its posses¬ 
sion. 

Hence there remains no necessity for which 
a supply is still wanting. Christ is literally 
made of God unto us “ wisdom and righteous¬ 
ness and sanctification and redemption,” and 
thus'the soul is ‘‘complete in him.” When, 
therefore, we consider the love of the Father 
for guilty men—that ‘ ‘ He is not willing that 
any should perish, but that all should come to 
repentance ”—that the language of his ye&rn- 
ing soul over them is, “ How shall I give thee 


“IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.” 211 

up”—we can well understand that, when he 
found a Ransom for man, one who could bear 
the weight of his transgressions, and supply 
all the wants and weakness of his disobedi¬ 
ence, thus bringing his many sons to glory, 
he would rejoice in spirit, and cause such 
words as these to be heard by the children of 
men: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased.” 

Having meditated thus upon the Son, so 
beloved and so well pleasing to the Father, let 
me ask every sinful one, dependent on God’s 
bounty and grace, Are you well pleased with this 
beloved Son? The natural man is not well 
pleased with Christ, for he is tilled with en¬ 
mity towards him. The self-righteous man is 
not well pleased with Christ, for instead of 
instantly and gratefully accepting His perfect 
righteousness, he goes about to establish his 
own. No man is well pleased with Christ 
who has not embraced Him as his Saviour, as 
He is freely offered to him in the gospel. And 
if you have embraced him, you may rest as¬ 
sured that, through Christ and in Christ, God 
is well pleased with you. Though a sinner, 
yet in Christ, and trusting in him, the Father 
grants you forgiveness, acceptance, adoption 


212 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

into the family of God. “And if children, 
then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with 
Christ 7 ’ to the heavenly inheritance. 

Are you then really well pleased with this 
beloved Son, who came to save his people 
from their sins ? Are yon willing to be made 
whole by this great Physician? You are not 
well pleased, you are not willing, unless you 
are forsaking much which you naturally love— 
“crucifying the flesh, with its affections and 
lusts , 77 “living soberly, righteously, and god¬ 
ly 77 in the midst of a world which continually 
plies you with temptations to live just the re¬ 
verse. 

Is your heart like the inn in Bethlehem, in 
which there was no room for the holy child 
Jesus? Oh, remember this, that God is well 
pleased with every thing in Christ, and that 
he is pleased with no intelligent earthly crea¬ 
ture out of Christ. He is pleased with his 
people because they are in him as the branch 
is in the vine, as the stone is in the building, 
as the passenger is in the ship. So that what¬ 
ever graces his people exemplify, whatever 
prayers they offer, whatever gifts they dedi¬ 
cate, whatever works they perform, our heav¬ 
enly Father looks upon them through Christ 


“IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.” 213 

ancl in Christ with complacency. .Christ is his 
beloved Son, with whom he is well pleased; 
and as he looks on him, so he looks on them. 
“ He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.” 

Do you delight in Christ’s work, rejoice in 
his offices, embrace the doctrines of his salva¬ 
tion, give yourself up to his care, gratefully 
work in his service ? If not, the truth we have 
been considering has a menacing aspect towards 
you. If he is the Beloved of the Father, in 
whom his soul is well pleased, then you, with¬ 
out love to Jesus, are not ready for the judg¬ 
ment-seat. 














































I 


















Matt. 17:5: “Hear ye him.” 
Luke 9 : 35 : “Hear him.” 





xvi i r. 


ii WEAR T E filM.’ 


“We come to hear Jehovah speak— 
To hear the Saviour’s voice. 


Thy face and favor, Lord, we seek ; 
Now make our hearts rejoice.” 



? ^HESE words form the conclusion of 
the sentence spoken by the voice 
from the excellent glory, the cloud of 
God’s presence, as it overshadowed 
that glorious company on Tabor. We 
have considered the great truths embraced in 
the former parts of this heavenly speech, viz., 
Christ’s relationship to God and God’s satis¬ 
faction in Christ; our duty now is presented 
to us in the words, “ Hear ye him.” 

If those who will not hear Christ, or who 
doubt his claims to be heard, or who continue 
to be deaf to his admonitions, had stood on 
that mountain ; and trembled before his sur¬ 
passing splendor, when his face did shine as 
the sun; had they seen that excellent glory 
diffusing itself around them, till its glorious 





218 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

effulgence made them afraid; had they, from 
the impenetrable depths of that glory, heard 
the awful voice saying, “This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased ; hear ye him/’ 
would they have despised his voice? 

But though they stood not on that mount, 
nor trembled in the presence of that glory, 
nor heard that awful voice, yet God's words 
cannot be lost . They are echoed to us still. 
They come as if vibrating the air which first 
bore them, or as uttered now from the heights 
of heaven, the region of surpassing glor}'; 
they come on God’s authority to every indi¬ 
vidual. They are still God’s words to us; 
and whether we hear or forbear, God says to 
us—to the children of men—as he said to the 
three chosen witnesses upon the mount of 
Transfiguration, “ Hear ye him ” 

He had declared to Moses, centuries be¬ 
fore, that the world must listen to this great 
Prophet when he came: “A Prophet shall 
the Lord your God raise up unto you, of your 
brethren, like unto me ; him shall ye hear in 
all things, whatsoever he shall say unto you. 
And it shall come to pass that every soul that 
will not hear that Prophet shall be destroyed 
from among the people.” God will surely call 



“HEAR YE HIM.” 


219 


every one of us to account for the manner in 
which we discharge this commanded duty, 
“ Hear ye him.” 

Let us therefore consider this thought, and 
try to realize what it means, placing ourselves 
on that mountain where the glory was over¬ 
whelmingly dazzling, that we may hear the 
words of God the Father echoing in our ears, 
“ Hear ye him.” 

This command must have been, in Peter’s 
case at the time, of peculiar significance. He 
may have desired to detain on that mount 
Moses and Elias—the great lawgiver, and the 
eminent prophet; but, “No,” says this voice 
from the excellent glory, “let these go. The 
law and the prophets are no longer necessary. 
This is my beloved Son. He is now your 
Teacher. Hear ye Him.” 

What a glorious testimony from God the 
Father to the preeminence of the beloved Son. 
Moses and Elias are overshadowed by the 
bright cloud, and vanish from the sight; but 
Christ remains. The law and the prophets 
yield to the far clearer and more glorious dis¬ 
pensation of the gospel. The veil which had 
{ long been drawn over this great and glorious 
truth is now for ever thrown aside, and Jesus 


220 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

stands confessed — “The blessed and only 
Potentate. The King of kings and Lord of 
lords.” 

“Hear ye him” was the death-note of the 
old dispensation, as it passed into oblivion; 
and it is now the inspiring cry of the church 
militant, as she goes on her way conquering 
through the earth; and it will be a portion of 
the chorus of the church triumphant, when, 
having overcome through the blood of the 
Lamb, she shall sit down an honored and 
glorious bride at the everlasting table of her 
Lord. 

When we read the writings of Moses or 
the words of Elias, we are not to hear the law¬ 
giver or the prophet, but Christ. They were 
but the trumpets through which he spake. 
His breath gave them all their utterance and 
all their emphasis. To him gave all the proph¬ 
ets witness; him they all typified and foretold. 
He reveals life and immortality more clearly 
than Moses and Elias did. He puts an end to 
the dark dispensation of the ceremonial law, 
and introduces the light of grace and truth. 
He is himself the substance of all the legal 
sacrifices, and “the end of the law for right¬ 
eousness to every one that believeth ” “Hear 


“HEAR YE HIM.” 


221 


him,” therefore, at all times, on all subjects, 
on all occasions, as to doctrine, worship, expe¬ 
rience, practice^ promises as to time and to 
eternity. 

Some who call themselves Christians tell 
ns that we are to “hear the church .” Yes, we 
may and ought to hear the church, as long as 
she repeats and explains Christ’s words as 
inspired and written in his holy book, giving 
permission at the same time to do as the noble 
Bereans did—“search the Scriptures,” each 
one for himself, “ to see if these things” which 
the church says “ are so.” We may and ought 
to hear the church in matters coming within 
the sphere of her jurisdiction, in so far as her 
decision is based upon and agreeable to the 
word of Christ. But in all that relates to the 
truths of God and the destiny of the soul—in 
all the knowledge that can guide a sinner in 
the path to everlasting glory—turn away from 
man and man’s words, and hear Christ, and 
Christ alone. 

Bead your Bible seeking to see and hear 
Jesus. If you read it for beautiful poetry or 
exquisite history or the loftiest morality, you 
will have your reward; but you ought not to 
be satisfied with the fairest and most fragrant 


222 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

flowers of the garden, till you find “ the Rose 
of Sharon.” You ought not to be satisfied 
with the shadow or the fruit of any tree that 
grows in it, until you sit under the shadow 
and eat of the fruit of the Tree of Life, which 
grows in the midst of the Paradise of God. 

In the Bible, Jesus is speaking to man¬ 
kind, and never man spake like him. Go, 
then, as an individual soul, and kneel at the 
feet of Jesus, listening not to what Moses or 
Elias, as mere men, nor to what any man or 
body of men may say, but to Him who is 
meeker than Moses, and who can lead you 
into the promised land; who is more zealous 
than Elijah, and is the Head of his body the 
church. Hear him, and you shall hear what 
prophets and kings desired to hear—a mes¬ 
sage of mercy, a remedy for all your ignor¬ 
ance, wretchedness, sorrows, sins ; and if faith 
corneth to you by hearing from his lips, you 
shall hear these words at last: “Come, ye 
blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world.” 

Ihere are many reasons why we should hear 
Christ. The simple command of God should 
be sufficient to constrain us to incline our ear. 


‘ 1 HEAR YE HIM.’ 


223 


But Christ is the messenger of the Father’s 
love, and whatever he says has the super¬ 
scription of God, the stamp of divinity and 
absolute authority. His enemies even de¬ 
clared that he spake as one having authority. 
The blind whose eyes he opened, the deaf 
whose ears he unstopped, the dead whose cold 
dust he quickened, the sea whose waves he 
laid, the wind whose fury he quelled, the 
multitude whom he saved by his grace and is 
conducting to his glory—all proclaim, in one 
simultaneous acknowledgment, “We know 
thou art a Teacher come from God, for no 
man can do those miracles which thou doest, 
except God be with him.” 

“Hear him,” because he has truth which 
can never deceive you, a wisdom which knows 
what you need, a goodness which will com¬ 
mand nothing but what will bless. 

“Hear him,” because if you hear him he 
has promised to hear you: “If my words abide 
in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall 
be done unto you.” 

“ Hear him,” for he speaks to you on the 
subject of the greatest importance, and speaks 
with a clearness, emphasis, authority, decision 
which scatter all doubts, solve all perplexi- 


224 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

ties; so that the simplest wayfaring man may 
not miss the road to glory. That great ques¬ 
tion, “What must I do to be saved?” finds its 
answer in Christ’s words. 

“Hear him,” because G-od has declared 
what will be the consequence of refusing to hear 
him: “Whosoever will not hearken to my 
words, which he shall speak in my name, I 
will require it of him.” What the consequence 
of refusing to hear Christ will be at the bar of 
the offended Saviour and Judge eternity only 
can disclose in all its fearfulness and in all its 
extent. If Christ desires to instruct you, sit 
at his feet like Mary, and listen to his words. 
He will tell you what you must do and be. 
His words are commands, and will stand as 
law. By them you must be judged at the 
last. His precepts may run counter to your 
wishes, and condemn your conduct; but even 
so, take up your cross and follow him; for 
if you neglect him, he will overwhelm you 
with everlasting shame, for he is true to his 
word. 

“ Hear him for if you hear him not, and 
keep not his words, you are building your 
hopes upon the sand, and when the tempest 
comes, as come it will, your fabric of hap- 


“HEAR YE HIM.” 


225 


piness must fall, and great will be the fall 
of it. 

The terms may be brief, but they are em¬ 
phatic, in which Jehovah has proclaimed Christ 
the only Prophet, Priest, and King of his peo¬ 
ple. Through him they are to know the way 
and the truth. By him their sins are to be 
purged away. To him they are to render 
obedience as to the supreme Lord of all. Je¬ 
sus has been designated and ordained to all 
these offices by his Father. To Christ and to 
his work, to his Sonship, to his sacrifice, to 
his prophetic office, God demands from each 
of us a submissive, reverent attention for our 
well-being, as well as for his glory. It con¬ 
cerns us to hear him above and before all 
things. His claim is always the first one. 
First because of him who speaks; first in the 
importance of what he says. And Jesus, as a 
present, living Saviour, entreats us to hear 
him now. 

It is not enough that you hear sermons or 
read the Bible. The grand duty and neces¬ 
sity is, to hear Jesus. The function of the 
preacher is, to invite you to hear Jesus, and 
not listen to his own thoughts. If you hear 
not Jesus, there is no worship, no divine wis- 
15 


Holy Mount.. 


226 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

dom, no life. If your soul does not come into 
converse with the living Saviour, your reli¬ 
gion is a dead formality. Come, then, and 
deal with Christ himself. He speaks to you. 
You are now under the shadow of that bright 
cloud—for even the clouds of Christ are lined 
with light. Your eyes may have hitherto been 
heavy with sleep, and insensible to the glory 
of Jesus. But the voice of the Lord should 
arouse you. You are hastening to the bar of 
judgment, and are about to enter the curtain 
which veils eternity. Helpless, laden with 
iniquity, you are passing to a hopeless doom. 
You need to be cleansed, clothed, washed, 
justified, sanctified. 

Who is to do this for you and upon you, 
to work in you the mighty transformation? 
No forms of devotion, no church, no priest¬ 
hood. You must go to Christ personally, and 
deal with him. You must be washed in the 
fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness. 
Either this or eternal wrath—eternal death. Oh 
what presumption, what wickedness, what de¬ 
ceitfulness of sin is in you, if you do not hear! 
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” says 
the Saviour; “if any man hear my voice, and 
open the door, I will come in to him, and will 


“HEAR YE HIM. 


227 


sup with him, and he with me.” Will your 
heart not respond, “ Come in, thou blessed of 
the Lord, why standest thou without?” 

And wherever you hear Jesus, hear him 
reverently. When you open and read God’s 
holy book, remember you are listening to the 
very words that fell from the lips of the incar¬ 
nate God. When the emperors of this world 
send a message to those who are legislating 
for the nation, the members of that legislative 
body rise, and with uncovered heads listen to 
the royal mandate. If they act thus to an 
earthly sovereign, how should you act towards 
a heavenly one ? The King of kings has sent 
his message to you, and the highest and 
lowest are equally welcome to hear it, and 
both, with bowed hearts and reverent minds, 
ought to listen and read and ponder. “ Be 
more ready to hear,” says Solomon, “ than to 
give the sacrifice of fools.” 

When you hear Christ, hear with docility. 
“Except ye be converted, and become as lit¬ 
tle children, ye shall not enter into the king¬ 
dom of heaven.” Listen to the words that are 
enunciated from God’s book, not as a critic, to 
discover how the preacher handles them, nor 
as theatre-goers, to witness a fine dramatic 


228 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


spectacle, nor as opera-frequenters, to listen, 
as Ezekiel’s hearers did, to one who sings a 
beautiful song or plays well upon an instru¬ 
ment ; but come as a poor, lost, guilty sinner, 
sitting down with the teachableness of a little 
child, receiving with joy, humility, gratitude, 
whatever the preacher says which has its 
foundation in God’s holy book. 

When you hear Christ, hear with personal, 
special , and practical application . Not only 
hear with special reference to yourself, but 
isolate yourself as much as possible from those 
around you, and listen as you would to the 
footfalls of the approaching Judge, and to 
the awful words that will establish or destroy 
for ever. “And be not,” says Jesus, “a for¬ 
getful hearer, but a doer.” The words you 
hear are for your guidance everywhere. At 
home, in the street, at your daily toil, wher¬ 
ever God in his providence has placed you, 
there you are to carry out in every-day 
life the directions }T>u have received from 
Christ. 

Hear him with a deep , solemn sense of your 
responsibility. There are few, if any. more sol¬ 
emn positions on earth, than to be a hearer of 
those great truths which shall not sleep, but 


“HEAR YE HIM.’ 


229 


which must meet you at the judgment-seat of 
Christ. Christ’s words, however plainly spo¬ 
ken, are to ever}" one who hears them either a 
savor of life unto life or of death unto death. 
You cannot depart from the place where you 
have heard Christ’s words, as you entered 
it. You will be more disposed to receive the 
next message, or to reject it. If you resist the 
appeal to-day, you will resist it more success¬ 
fully to-morrow; until at length you will be¬ 
come so hardened that the word as addressed 
to you will but rebound and disappear. 

Christ’s words as heard by you now will 
be heard by you on the judgment-day, either 
as strains of music or as crashes of thunder. 
The precious seed of his word here sown will 
either grow up into harvests of beautiful wheat, 
which the great Husbandman will gather into 
his everlasting garner, or into weeds and 
thorns and thistles, that are fit only for the 
burning. 

See, then, that ye' refuse not Him that 
speaketh ; “for if they escaped not who refused 
Him who spoke on earth, how much more 
shall not you escape, if you refuse Him that 
speaketh from heaven!” 

“Hear Him,” and “your soul shall live; 


230 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

and God will make an everlasting covenant 
with you, even the sure mercies of David . 77 
“My sheep , 77 says Christ, “hear my voice, 
and I know them, and they follow me; and 
they shall never perish; neither shall any 
pluck them out of my hand . 77 


Matt. 17 : 6 : “And when the disciples heard it, they fell 
on their face, and were sore afraid.” 




















*. 








































' r ' 

' . ' r 

























^ • 
























. • . ;i i\ 





























* 

« 

























XIX. 


JhE ^FFECT OF THAT yoiCE UPON 

THE piSCIPLES. 

“ Teach us to pray and praise—to hear 
And understand thy word ; 

To feel thy blessed presence near, 

And trust our living Lord. ” 

f PHE solemnity and sublimity of the 
transfiguration scene reached their 
height at the moment the bright cloud 
overshadowed the disciples, and the 
voice of the Father's testimony pro¬ 
ceeded from it. But no sooner is Jesus, under 
whose wing the disciples had felt secure, en¬ 
veloped in the cloud, than fear took posses¬ 
sion of their minds; and when the voice from 
the excellent glory sounded from that cloud, 
their fear became overwhelming. “They fell 
on their face 7 ’ — as if thunderstruck—“and 
were sore afraid . 77 Such was the awful im¬ 
pression which the voice from the Shechinah 
made upon the three disciples. It was the 
same feeling, only more intense, as took pos- 


234 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

session of them when they entered into the 
cloud. It was produced by the consciousness 
that they were sinners, and that they were 
near the majesty of the Eternal. Adam, after 
he had sinned, Abraham, Moses, Job, the Is¬ 
raelites at Horeb and at Carmel, Isaiah, Dan¬ 
iel, the beloved disciple in Patinos, experi¬ 
enced similar feelings. 

When we forget God, and have our minds 
occupied about ourselves or about the things 
of the world, we may imagine we are some¬ 
thing, and be proud in our own conceit; but 
when God’s excellent greatness is suddenly 
discovered to us, we sink into nothingness be¬ 
fore him. Saul may go with haughty mien to 
Damascus to drag men and women to prison, 
and to persecute the disciples of the Lord; 
but as soon as there shines around him a light 
above the brightness of the sun, and a voice 
is heard from the cloud, he falls on his face to 
the earth, and trembling and astonished says, 
“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” 

These disciples upon the mount needed to 
have impressed upon them their unworthiness 
and guilt, and so also do we. When we re¬ 
gard God as at a distance from us, and shut 
him out of our thought, we live at ease—troub- 


THE EFFECT OF THAT VOICE. 235 

led it may be sometimes with dim apprehen¬ 
sions of guilt and foreshadowing of punish¬ 
ment ; but these pass away, our sin is forgot¬ 
ten, and a Saviour is uncared for. We may 
indeed speak of him, admire his character, and 
even meditate on the glorious perfection of his 
work; but there will be no due appreciation 
of him till the Father has revealed his glory 
to our souls. Then, when we see God and 
know that we are in his presence, we abhor 
ourselves, we feel that we must find the Sav¬ 
iour, and lay hold upon eternal life. There 
will be no rest or peace for us till he says, 
“Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is 
purged.” 

But how shall they who have not fled to 
Christ and felt that in him they are safe, 
stand without terror in the immediate pres¬ 
ence of the divine Majesty? A word from his 
mouth to the mightiest on earth, who is not 
thus prepared, would be as the voice of the 
Lord, which breaketh the cedars and maketh 
Lebanon and Carmel tremble. How different 
must be the view which men take of them¬ 
selves and of the present state of existence, 
when they are ushered into the presence of 
the Almighty! One day this will surely come 


23G JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

to pass. “Behold lie cometh with clouds, 
and every eye shall see him, and all the kin¬ 
dreds of the earth shall wail because of him.” 
If men will not’hear him now, nor trust in 
him now, they will finally meet him as their 
Judge. We are sinners, and as such we can¬ 
not stand in the presence of God. If he were 
to reveal his glory to our minds, as he could 
by the mere working of his Spirit within us; if 
he should manifest to us what our real charac¬ 
ter is in his sight, what our actions are as 
viewed by him, and what he is, we could not 
endure the sight; we could not come thus near 
to God without crying, awe-stricken before 
our Maker, “Behold, we are vile !” Once in 
the days of the Saviour’s flesh, the disciples 
let down their net, at the command of Jesus, 
in the lake of Gennesaret, and they enclosed 
such a multitude of fish that their net brake, 
and their boat began to sink. Peter was so 
overwhelmed that he fell down at Jesus’ knees, 
and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sin¬ 
ful man, 0 Lord.” He felt the presence of Deity. 
The stupendous miracle indicated to his mind 
the nearness of him who is the “Thrice Holy 
One,” and under the overwhelming impression 
of a present God he gave utterance to that 


THE EFFECT OF THAT VOICE. 237 

which was the first and deepest emotion of 
his heart. Nearness to God must be hum¬ 
bling to sinful man. 

It is in the presence of God that the splen¬ 
dor of human wisdom dims and grows pale; 
and it is in such presence that the radiance 
of infinite holiness deepens all the shades of 
conscious sin. Never does the stain of crime 
appear so deep in its dye, so heinous in its 
demerit, as when it is seen in the light of that 
God who has told the wicked one of the most 
awful things in the Bible—that he will “set 
their secret sins in the light of his counte¬ 
nance.” 

When the sinner looks at sin now, it may 
appear insignificant; but when seen in the 
intense light of God, its stain will have a hei¬ 
nousness so real and so deep, that we shall see 
it as Scripture language describes it. 

Look at sin in the light of the law, and it 
is exceeding sinful. Look at sin in the light 
of God the Legislator, it is yet more sinful ; 
but look at it in the light of the countenance 
of Jesus, and it not only seems to be the deep¬ 
est stain, but to be charged with the intensest 
baseness and ingratitude to the Benefactor. 

If such trembling laid hold upon good men 


238 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

when God appeared to them in his glory, what 
will seize him who has rejected his mercy 
when He shall appear in terrible majesty ? 
Will he not cry, “This is Jesus Christ, the 
Saviour of whom I read, of whom I heard ? 
This is the Christ crucified whom my pastor 
preached. This is He who I knew would 
come with clouds. These are the angels, and 
there is the flaming fire. Mountains and rocks, 
fall on me, and hide me from the wrath of the 
Lamb!” Every man that lives shall be there, 
and in that awful volume which lies before the 
Judge is registered indelibly every sin each 
one has committed during his sojourn on the 
earth. You may have been accustomed to 
compare yourself with others, and because* 
you thought you were at least as good as some 
of your neighbors, you may have hoped for 
acceptance; but can your hope endure before 
that Eye, the slightest glance of which is 
piercing with omniscience ? Do you feel that 
you could conceal any thing, when the universe 
is lit up with the brightness of the countenance 
of the Judge ? You may have imagined that 
God would not make good his threatenings, 
that he would be more compassionate than his 
word has announced; but where is that ima- 


THE EFFECT OF THAT VOICE. 239 

gination now? Does it hold good amid this 
tremendous heraldry of wrath ? As you look 
upon the Judge, and see upon him the marks 
of wounds inflicted because of God’s utter 
determination to pftnish sin, do you feel there 
is a likelihood of God’s word being broken, 
that you may be delivered ? Surely not. 

If you were before the throne; if the glory, 
the burning glory'of the Judge encompassed 
you ; if the ten thousand times ten thousand 
ministering spirits that shall attend the Son of 
man were glancing to and fro, ready not only 
to gather the wheat into the garner, but to 
bind the tares in bundles for the burning, you 
would feel at once all hypocrisy exposed, all 
false confidence overthrown, and like Esau, 
you would cry with an exceeding bitter cry, 
“Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man 
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the 
King the Lord of glory.” 

Oh, if you would escape the terror of that 
hour, you must fly to the Saviour now. He 
is the only shelter from the storm, and the 
only covert from the tempest; and in him on 
that day “you can lift up your head with joy, 
knowing that your redemption draweth nigh.” 



Matt. 17 : 7 : “And Jesus came and touched them, and 
said, Arise, and be not afraid.’’ 



Holy Mount. 


II 


























































































• ’ 



















































































* 






XX. 


yHE yoUCH AND ^ORDS OF jJeSUS. 



‘ ‘ 0 Lord, our languid souls inspire, 

For here, we trust, thou art; 

Kindle a flame of heavenly fire 
In every waiting heart.” 

'ESUS has ever shown himself a 
merciful and faithful High-priest. 
It was thus he came to the disciples 
when they were terror-stricken, and 
had fallen on their faces at the sound 
of Jehovah’s words. Jesus came, and with 
his own almighty finger touched them, and 
said, “Arise, be not afraid.” As a wise Mas¬ 
ter-Builder, he conies to his own, walks amid 
the ruins of poor fallen humanity, and from 
the fragments erects a magnificent temple to 
the Lord. He approaches as a skilful work¬ 
man, and from the clay trodden under foot he 
forms vessels of honor fit for the Master’s use. 
The Sun of righteousness arises with healing- 
in his wings, and the disorders of humanity 


244 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


are rectified, its sorrows flee away, and hope 
everywhere smiles around. 

“ Jesus came and touched them;” and at his 
touch new vigor was imparted to their frames, 
new light dawned upon their understandings, 
and new feelings took possession of their 
hearts. 

A touch of Jesus is the only means of spir¬ 
itual restoration. This touch is the work of the 
Holy Spirit upon the heart and mind, pro¬ 
ducing peace, humility, holiness, love, self- 
denial, and activity to rise and labor for 
Jesus, for the glory of God, and for the good 
of man. 


“'Tis thine, eternal Spirit, tliine, 

To form the heart anew: 

’T is thine the passions to recall, 

And bid them upward rise, 

To make the scales of error fall 
From reason’s darkened eyes.” 

We may be immersed in sorrow, or sleep¬ 
ing in vain security, or even dead in sin, but 
Jesus extends his gracious hand to our relief. 
Omnipotence attends his touch, and the sins 
of our infirmities, or the sins of our carnal 
security, or the deeper iniquity of our nature 
pass away, and we awake as men who have 
dreamed. 


TOUCH AND WORDS OF JESUS. 245 

One gracious truth let us ever remember, 
that to every sinner conscious of his guilt, 
feeling his readiness to perish, and stretching 
out his hand for help, Jesus is ever near. These 
disciples experienced this. They were pros¬ 
trate and abased in the presence of this glori¬ 
ous revelation that was made to them; but 
Jesus comes and touches them in their humil¬ 
iation and self-abasement, and says, “Arise, 
be not afraid.” 

There is restorative power in his touch 
and word. It lifts them up and imparts 
strength to them. It brings precisely what 
they need—peace, comfort, strength. We 
cannot rise from our prostrate helplessness 
and fear on account of sin, until Jesus comes 
as our Saviour and Friend. Struck down 
under a sense of sin, we do not arise and go 
to Jesus. He comes and touches us, and 
makes himself one with us. We do not go for 
help. Help comes to us. So near is Jesus, 
and so infinitely gracious. We do not find 
him till he finds us. He came to seek the 
lost. He came to call sinners, and he receiv¬ 
ed them and enters into most friendly fellow¬ 
ship with them. When the Spirit has revealed 
to us the Divine majesty and holiness, and 


246 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

when we are thus self-emptied, without 
strength, prostrate in the dust, Christ comes 
forth, and touches us. This is the only way 
in which we are found. Many have sought 
Jesus long years in vain, groping their way 
to find salvation, but their search has been 
fruitless. Worn out, exhausted, all resources 
and methods tried for naught, they sit down 
in conscious helplessness, almost in despair; 
and then, when prostrate with their faces on 
the ground, Jesus has touched them, dispelled 
their fear, and made darkness light before 
them. 

It is often our confidence in our own capa¬ 
city to do something that in some way will 
make salvation our own, that lies between us 
and Christ. That being removed, and we 
brought to feel like Peter when he was sink¬ 
ing, then Christ proves his nearness and his 
readiness to save, and he lifts the helpless, 
guilty soul from the fearful pit and from the 
miry clay. True, we are to seek Christ and 
take heaven by violence ; but this seeking and 
knocking is to teach us more and more of our 
helplessness, and to show us more of our sin, 
and to bring us, by the Spirit’s own operation 
upon our hearts, where Christ will touch us and 


TOUCH AND WORDS OF JESUS. 247 

speak comfortably unto us. Oh, it is a blessed 
thing to have such a Mediator as we poor, sin¬ 
ful children of men have! It is a blessed 
thing to know that our guilt has been borne 
by One who was able to bear it, and that 
through him God has become our Father and 
our Friend. This comforted the disciples; 
and although they were “sore afraid,” when 
they heard Jesus say, “Arise, be not afraid,” 
they ventured to lift up their eyes. It was a 
gentle and well-known voice which sounded 
in their ears. They had often heard its 
accents in tones of meekness and of surpassing 
goodness, and though they had hid their face 
from the majesty of God, at the voice of the 
God-man they were encouraged. 

But the gracious word of Jesus must be 
accompanied by the hand of his power, if it is 
to redress our grievances and rectify what¬ 
ever is amiss in us. One touch from heaven 
brings us on our knees, as suppliants begging 
for mercy, pardon, life. One touch from 
heaven sets us on our feet, standing on the 
Rock of ages, firm as the throne of God. One 
touch from heaven opens our lips, unlooses the 
string of our tongue, and makes us eloquent 
in the praise of God. One touch from heaven 


248 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

makes us strong in the Lord and in the power 
of his might, and sends us forth on our way 
rejoicing. Oh for one touch from the hand 
of Jesus! That one touch would put life in 
the dead, comfort in the sorrowing, courage 
in the fearful, and make every tongue cele¬ 
brate his praise. 

Is it not also a blessed thought, that the 
Saviour delights in comforting his jgeojfle on 
earth , as well as saving them and bringing them 
to heaven? His heart is full of tenderness 
towards them, and it is his pleasure to say to 
them, as he did to the penitent trembling one 
at his feet, “Be of good cheer, thy sins are 
forgiven thee; go in peace.”, It rejoices his 
heart to say to disciples who are anxious lest 
their faith may fail, and their feet slide from 
the path that leads to glory, “Fear not, little 
flock, it is your Father’s good pleasure to 
give you the kingdom.” “Let not your heart 
be troubled.” “Peace I leave with you, my 
peace I give unto you; not as the world giv- 
etli, give I unto you.”* Though that blessed 
Saviour is bodily absent from his people on 
earth, yet he often comforts them in the ordi¬ 
nances of the gospel. He revives them with 
the sweet promises of his grace, and by speak- 


TOUCH AND WORDS OF JESUS. 249 

ing to them by his Spirit, he conveys peace 
and comfort to their hearts. 

He comforts and supports them under ap¬ 
prehensions of temporal calamities. Impending 
dangers and distresses often excite terror, and 
overwhelm the soul with anxious dread. But 
what ground of fear can they have who have 
the eternal God for their refuge? What 
injury can arise to him whose soul is in the 
Redeemer’s hands, and for whose benefit all 
things are ordered? Not a hair can perish 
but by special permission from his best Friend. 
Thousands may fall beside him, and ten thou¬ 
sand at his right hand, but no weapon that is 
formed against him can prosper. If his eyes 
were opened to behold his real situation, he 
might see himself encompassed with horses of 
fire and chariots of fire ; and standing as in an 
impregnable fortress, he might defy the assaults 
of men and devils. If his God and Saviour 
are for him, no matter who may be against him. 

The words of Jesus, “Fear not,” are well 
calculated to dissipate the fears of the kneeling 
penitent , harassed with the thought of eternal con¬ 
demnation. No man can reflect on his own 
character without feeling that he deserves the 
wrath of God; and every one that is sensible 
11 * 


250 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

of his own demerits must tremble lest the 
judgments he has deserved should be inflicted. 
Yet a proper view of the Saviour should dis¬ 
pel his fears, and cause him to rejoice with 
joy unspeakable. 

Does his guilt appear too great to be for¬ 
given ? He that offered atonement for it is 
the infinite God. Do doubts arise respecting 
his acceptance with the Father? Behold, that 
very Jesus who made the atonement for him 
‘‘ever liveth 77 to plead it as his advocate, and 
to present it before the mercy-seat. Do 
death and hell appall him with their terrors ? 
They are altogether subject to the control of 
Jesus, whose power and faithfulness are pledged 
for the salvation of all his ransomed people. 
To the weakest then, it may be said, “Fear 
not; though thou art a worm, thou shalt thresh 
the mountains; and though thou art the small¬ 
est grain that has been gathered from the field, 
thou shalt be treasured safely in the granary 
of thy heavenly Father.’ 7 

But to those who are ignorant of Christ 
and careless about his salvation, we must not 
write, “Fear not,’ 7 but rather, “Fear and 
tremble for He whom you are despising is 
the eternal God, and ever liveth to make his 


TOUCH AND WORDS OF JESUS. 251 

enemies his footstool. He has only, as it 
were, to turn the key of the invisible world, 
and your souls will be locked up in the prison- 
house whence there is no redemption. 

If you prostrate yourself not now at the 
feet of Jesus, while his offers of mercy are 
extended to you, you shall perish. Oh, it is 
not for you to be indifferent, where devils 
tremble, where angels wonder, where proph¬ 
ets and apostles adore, where all the sanctified 
on earth and all the glorified in heaven derive 
their chief delight. Look on Him whom your 
sins have crucified afresh, and mourn. Go to 
Calvary and see him bleeding there for sin, 
and will not your heart melt at the sight, and 
your stubbornness be broken up, and you give 
yourself a willing captive at the feet of Jesus, 
saying: 

“A guilty, weak, and helpless worm, 

On thy kind arms I fall; 

Be thou my strength and righteousness, 

My Saviour, and my all ?” 

However feeble the hand of your faith, 
only put it into the hand of Christ, and you 
have his promise that he will not let you go. 
Only put yourself under his care as the Good 
Shepherd who laid down his life for the sheep, 
and he will become security for your safety to 


252 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 


the end. Only give yourself to him, and in 
return he will give himself to you, and the 
union thus formed will outlast that of the soul 
and body. It will exist for ever. 

“ The soul that on Jesus has leaned for repose, 

He will not, he cannot forsake to his foes ; 

That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, 
He’ll never—no, never—no, never forsake.” 


Matt. 17 :8 : “And wlien they had lifted up their eyes, 
they saw no man, save Jesus only.” 

Mark 9:8: “And suddenly, when they had looked round 
about, they saw no man any more, save Jesus only with 
themselves.” 

Luke 9 :36 : “And when the voice was past, Jesus was 
found alone. ” 









































































v 






























. 






























XXL 


jIeSUS pN 


LY.’ 



“Jesus, I my cross have taken, 

All to leave and follow thee! 

Naked, poor, despised, forsaken, 

Thou from hence my all shalt be.” 

ERE is another experience of the 
disciples on the holy mount. When 
the brightness of the vision had de¬ 
parted, and the voice from the excel¬ 
lent glory had been heard, the disci¬ 
ples fell on their faces and were sore afraid; 
but at the touch and words of Jesus their 
fears were dispelled, they dared again to lift 
up their eyes, and when they looked around 
they “saw no man, save Jesus only.” 

All was gone—Moses, Elias, the cloud, the 
voice, the radiant Majesty. There cannot be 
a long continuance of glory upon the earth. 
Constant happiness can only be looked for and 
enjoyed in those regions where we shall behold 
our Saviour in his unchangeable glory, and 
where the light shall never be clouded. Yes, 



256 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

yes, Moses and Elias are gone. The glory of 
the law and of the prophets was but tempo¬ 
rary. It endured but for a moment, that the 
bringing in of a better hope might be more 
conspicuous and more perfect. The lawgiver 
and the prophet came to bear testimony to the 
Messiah, and when that was done they van¬ 
ished. The disciples therefore need not sor¬ 
row at the departure of their heavenly vis¬ 
itants, as long as their Master is yet with 
them. If He had gone away, the continued 
presence of Moses and Elias would have 
afforded them little comfort, for no creature 
can supply the place of the Saviour. But it 
matters little who is away, as long as he is at 
our right hand to help and to defend us. He 
alone is all-sufficient. With him we can lack 
nothing. “Though I walk through the val¬ 
ley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, 
for thou art with me.” 

“Jesus” says another evangelist, “ was 
found alone.” And in his church and among 
his people he must always stand alone: “The 
Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.” 
If his church would grow strong; if we would 
have religion revive ; if we would have souls 
saved, that which we require is, to have Jesus 


“JESUS ONLY.’ 


257 


lifted up. Christ is the life of the gospel, and 
the only life of souls. He is the Day’s-man 
that can alone lay his hand upon the offended 
God and the offending creature. Our eyes 
should see Him only, and God’s eyes will see 
him only. The words and the touch of Jesus 
can turn all hearts to him, and direct all eyes 
to him. And oh, what a blessed and life-giv¬ 
ing sight to see Jesus alone, to feel his sus¬ 
taining and reinvigorating power, to have our 
eye fastened upon him and filled with the vis¬ 
ion of the Lamb of God, to be so near him and 
so quickened by him. This we should seek as 
the resting-place and the consummation of all 
our hope. 

Behold, then, the Lamb of God! This is 
the Divine invitation and command. He has 
been lifted up on the cross that he might 
draw all men unto him. Paul, in his epistle 
to the Hebrews, urges Christians in their 
race to keep the eye fixed only on Jesus. 
These Christian racers are not to see any 
man in the multitudes of spectators witnessing 
the race, nor are they to be attracted by any 
thing, however precious or beautiful, by their 
side. They must see no man, save Jesus only. 
Those who run in the race to heaven, must 


258 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

believe only in Jesus, love only Jesns, obey 
only Jesus, hope only in Jesus. 

Believers in Jesus , have you looked to him 
enough ? Have not your eyes often wandered 
away? You have looked to yourselves, to 
the world, to many inferior objects, and have 
been absorbed in many inferior cares ; but 
Jesus, “the author and finisher of your faith,” 
who should be to you “all in all,” has had a 
very inadequate and imperfect portion of your 
regard. Just in proportion as you have looked 
away from him, has your spiritual prosperity 
been hindered; and in like proportion as you 
keep your eyes fixed on him, has your spirit¬ 
ual prosperity increased, become redolent and 
grateful. Oh, then, in the performance of 
duty, in the endurance of sorrow, in the con¬ 
flict with temptation, in the prospect of life, 
and in the anticipation of death, look to him, 
and see only him as a Saviour. Seeing none 
but Jesus only, will save you from many 
snares, will guide you in many perplexities, 
and Jesus will reward you by returning in 
mighty and benignant influence all you can 
desire. 

There may be some who have hitherto seen 
every thing around and above them but Jesus, 


“JESUS ONLY.” 


259 


and who have cast no glance of faith and love to 
him. Let me entreat such to endeavor to fix 
their gaze upon him now. So long as you are 
looking away from him, you are in danger ; 
and if you desire to receive impulses by which 
you shall rise from depravity, and receive 
peace and joy, you must look to him now. 
Look to him in penitence and in faith, and 
you shall live. But remember there is a time 
coming, as we have intimated, when you shall 
be permitted to look no longer. He will with¬ 
draw himself from the guilty and the obdu¬ 
rate ; and when he shall appear to them again, 
it will be in the fearful and overwhelming 
majesty of the judgment-seat, when it will be 
too late to obtain mercy, and when nothing 
shall remain but “a fearful looking for of judg¬ 
ment and fiery indignation. 77 Then Jesus, with 
an eye of pure light and fire, will penetrate to 
the most shrouded secret of your soul. He 
will detect your impenitence and unbelief, ajid 
will pronounce that sentence which will be the 
knell of your everlasting perdition. By the 
solemnity of that dreadful day, and by the fear 
of enduring on that day “the wrath of the 
Lamb/ 7 we implore you to come to him, as he 
has commanded. Turn away from every thing 


260 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

else, and behold him as your own Saviour. 
In meditation, in faith, in love, in hope, look 
to him now, and at last you shall see the King 
in his beauty, you shall gaze upon his appear¬ 
ing, his name shall be upon your forehead, and 
you shall reign and be glorified with him for 
ever and ever. 

When the disciples ‘‘lifted up their eyes 
and saw no man save Jesus only,” they felt 
that they must now descend from that mountain 
height and mingle again with the world. They 
must go down to the plain crowded with sin¬ 
ners, with the profane, the vicious, the rebel¬ 
lious; but this was their comfort, that they 
would have the Lord Jesus with them. We, 
too, have the same blessed Companion of our 
heavenly journey. We do not now see his 
glory as they saw it, nor have we now the 
vision of the glory of the Father ; but we 
know that the Lord Jesus Christ, glorified on 
that mountain summit, now reigns in glory, 
and is watching each of us, and has promised 
to guide every believer in him to everlasting 
life. 

Having this gracious Companion of our 
pilgrimage, let us honor and trust him, and 
keep close to his side. If the world neglects 


“JESUS ONLY.” 


261 


him, we must be more zealous in his service, 
and we “shall see him” hereafter as he is, 
surrounded with a glory surpassing even that 
which he assumed on Tabor. We shall see 
him on the heights of the heavenly Zion, 
with a countenance surpassing the sun, with 
garments glittering as the light, with hosts of 
radiant saints around him, and with the glory 
of the Father shedding its purity over the 
whole of that heavenly land. Then our jo}^ 
will be consummated, and the hour of our last 
and eternal triumph come. 

Seeing , then , none but Him , let us press 
onward to the kingdom, hasting through the 
wilderness, living by faith, and not by sight. 

Seeing none but Him , let our joy and 
peace abound, living like strangers here, glo¬ 
rying in tribulation, reaching forward to the 
prize, anticipating the crown and the king¬ 
dom. 

Seeing none but Him , let us pass the time 
of our sojourning here in fear, girding our 
loins, trimming our lamps, as we hear his 
own voice saying, “Behold, I come quickly, 
and my reward is with me to give to every 
man according as his work shall be.” 























«■ > 




























































- 




















• 



















































• Matthew 17:9: “Ana as they came down from the 
mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to 
no man, until the Son of man be risen again from the dead.” 

Mahk 9:9: “And as they came down from the mount¬ 
ain, he charged them that they should tell no man what 
things they had seen, till the Son of man were risen from 
the dead.” 

Luke 9 : 36, 37 : “ And they kept it close, and told no man 
in those days any of those things which they had seen. And 
it came to pass, that on the next day, when they were come 
down from the hill, much people met him.” 


































k 



: r 








$ 
















. 
























♦ 






























. 

































































XXII. 


JD OWN THE yVL OUNTA IN, AND THE 

^Solemn Pharge. 


“ Glory, glory to our King! 

Crowns unfading wreathe his head ; 
Jesus is the name we sing, 

Jesus risen from the dead; 

Jesus, spoiler of the grave, 

Jesus, mighty now to save.” 


that transpired on that holy 
mount is now past. The whole vis- 
ion, with all its attendant circum- 
stances, is as a dream of the night. 
The night, too, on which it occurred 
is over; “the next day” has arrived, and 
Christ and his three disciples are, as Luke 
tells ns, descending the mountain. Each indi¬ 
vidual of that little company is engrossed with 
all that has so recently passed away, and 
Christ now delivers to them his solemn charge 
respecting the vision. They were to “tell the 
vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen 
again from the dead.” 

The Saviour, in all his sayings and doings 
12 


Holy Mount. 


‘266 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

among men, was manifestly as prudent as lie ivas 
good. We find him once and again indicating 
to his disciples the expediency of silence on 
certain questions and events for a specified 
time. In the twentieth verse of the eighth 
chapter of Luke, he charges the disciples that 
they should tell no man that he was the 
Christ; and in his last discourse he distinctly 
says, “ I have many things to say unto you, 
hut ye cannot hear them now.” When he 
was sending his disciples to prepare his com¬ 
ing among the men of Judea, he instructs to 
whom they were to announce the gospel of 
peace. They were not to “cast their pearls 
before swine ;” in other words, they were not 
to present his truths to men of certain mental 
and moral habits. They were to he “ wise as 
serpents” while they were “harmless as doves.” 
The mind must be prepared for the reception 
of truth, or it may spurn the very knowledge 
which it would otherwise gladly embrace. In 
teaching humanity, God therefore deals out 
truth as men are able to receive it. Even the 
great facts of nature have thus been very 
gradually made known to men. The great 
book of science, “written within and on the 
backside, and sealed with seven seals,” is not 


THE SOLEMN CHAKGE. 267 

laid open at once to nature’s inquiring pupil. 
Only one seal at a time is broken; and when 
the contents of the unfolded document have 
been deciphered, word for word, and partially 
understood, which it may take centuries to do, 
then, and not till then, another seal is broken. 
God’s course in the development of his treas¬ 
ures of knowledge, is like that of the sun, not 
pouring at once a full flood of light upon the 
world, but shining brighter and brighter until 
the perfect day. Bacon and Newton and Har¬ 
vey and Watt and Morse came on the scene 
many years apart, to * unfold, under God’s 
guidance, the true way to investigate nature, 
and to show what sublime and wonderful 
things nature had in store for the children of 
men. 

The same prudential order can be still 
more clearly observed in the revelation of spir¬ 
itual things. Four thousand long years were 
occupied in preparing the world for the recep¬ 
tion of Christ. The promise of a Saviour made 
to Adam was very feeble compared with that 
which was made to Isaiah. The one was like 
the glimmering of a distant star, compared to 
the flush of the approaching sun. Adam, 
Noah, Moses, David, Isaiah, Daniel, Malachi, 


268 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

were all necessary at distant intervals for 
developing the religious intellect of the world. 

It is only gradually and slowly that man can 
obtain knowledge. Drop by drop only must 
descend into the vessel with such a small re¬ 
ceiving capacity. The alphabet must be mas¬ 
tered before we can read. The first princi¬ 
ples must be acquired before we advance into 
the science. God does not treat man as an 
angel, but as a fallen creature, with powers 
only in the infancy of their being, and capable 
of gradual expansion. Here then was one 
principle which guided the Saviour on the 
present occasion in charging his disciples that 
they should “ tell the vision to no man.” 

But he had other reasons for his [prohibition 
of the publication of his transfiguration. One 
of these was, that unless the transfiguration 
was received as a proof of his Messiahship, it 
would answer no practical purpose among men. 
The past conduct of the scribes and Phari¬ 
sees, and of the people over whom they had 
such power, made it evident that if the disci¬ 
ples were to proclaim what they had seen and 
heard on the mountain the previous night, 
instead of accepting the statement in good 
faith, and taking it as a proof of Christ’s Mes- 


THE SOLEMN CHARGE. 269 

siahship, they would turn it into scorn and 
ridicule. There are some people so narrow¬ 
minded, and whose understandings are so 
warped by prejudice, that when they once 
imbibe a dislike for another, they can see no 
good either in the individual himself or what 
is done by him. Unworthy motives are at¬ 
tributed to every thing he says or does. If 
such a one is engaged in a good cause, instead 
of aiding him or the cause, they throw stum¬ 
bling-blocks in his way. To seek to please 
such w T ould be a fruitle*ss effort. They are 
determined not to be pleased; and instead of 
receiving good themselves, they are only re¬ 
ceiving evil, and are the occasion of evil to 
others. They would not accept as genuine 
the most convincing proof of the rectitude of 
the person’s character, nor be satisfied with 
any thing that might emanate from him. Evil 
then, rather than good, would come out of any 
attempt to please them, or work in them a 
change of mind. For this cause Jesus, after 
he had enjoyed the most refreshing season with 
heavenly ones on that holy mount, charged 
his disciples, “ Tell the vision to no man.” 

But the injunction of silence was only to 
last for a limited period —“Till the Son of man 


270 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

be risen again from the deadT After his resur¬ 
rection from the dead the transfiguration, re¬ 
ceived in connection with the whole of his 
marvellous life, would come with well-nigh 
irresistible proof in favor of his Messiahship. 
In the light of the crowning fact of his resur¬ 
rection, all the facts of his‘previous life, even 
the most apparently trivial, would start up as 
incontrovertible evidence, and “declare him 
to be the Son of God with power.” Each fact 
of his life, viewed separately, might be quib¬ 
bled about and sophistically argued away; 
but link them together, and join them to his 
resurrection, and they become, as evidence, 
irresistible. His resurrection was a sun-fact, 
which lighted up the whole of his previous life 
with the rays of Divinity. Hence when Peter 
proclaimed it upon the day of Pentecost, thou¬ 
sands, who before regarded Him as an impos¬ 
tor and blasphemer, bowed with penitent rev¬ 
erence to him as the mighty Son of God. 

The Saviour did nothing for ostentation. 
“Tell the vision to no man.” It was prophe¬ 
sied of him that he should not cry, nor lift up, 
nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets. 
He would carry on his work in silence. He 
would blow no trumpet before him, nor would 


THE SOLEMN CHARGE. 


271 


lie have any noisy retinue to follow him. 
“ The kingdom of God cometh not with obser¬ 
vation . ,7 Jesus went about his work quietly, 
but perseveringly, leaving his works to testify 
of him, and permitting no noisy words of his to 
attract the attention of men. On this princi¬ 
ple too, he enjoined his disciples not to make 
known to any the glory they had seen, and 
the honor that had been conferred upon him 
while on that holy mount. 

How different Christ s procedure from that 
which sometimes characterizes his professed 
followers. There are those who cannot do 
any thing to ameliorate the condition of their 
fellow-men or to advance the cause of the 



Master without sounding a trumpet and stand- \fw\ 
ing at the corners of the streets. When they 
contribute to the cause of God or to the relief 
of the suffering, they proclaim their alms be¬ 
fore men. And there are those who cannot i 
speak for Jesus or work for Jesus, whether 
among rich or poor, young or old, without pro¬ 
claiming their own goodness. It was not so 
with Jesus. He would not let his left hand 
know what his right hand performed. “ Tell 
the vision to no man . 77 There is a time to 
speak, but there is also a time to be silent. 


272 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

“ Tell the vision to no man.” In this way 
the unbelief of the Jews was ypunished. They 
had evidence sufficient already of his Messiali- 
ship, but they had closed their eyes to its suf¬ 
ficiency, and had attributed the working of his 
miracles to the agency of the evil one; and 
because of this, the Saviour would not spread 
before them clearer demonstrations by which 
they might possibly be convinced. 

Jesus will not press his claims upon those 
who will not come to him that they might have 
life. He will afford them all reasonable mo¬ 
tives to induce them to believe; but if these 
avail not, he will suspend his operations and 
withhold his grace. He did this with Pha¬ 
raoh. He would not let go his grasp on Israel, 
though hail and darkness and murrain and 
blood had befallen his land. His heart, at 
each succeeding miracle, became harder than 
before. God withheld his grace, because the 
evidence which had already been afforded of 
his might had been resisted; and to punish 
him for his sin, he was left to himself. So 
with Jesus on this occasion. The Jews were to 
have no such testimony as the vision afforded. 
“To him that hath,” and improves what God 
has given him, “shall be given”—more grace 


THE SOLEMN CHARGE. 273 

and more proofs of God’s goodness; “but 
from him that hath not shall be taken away 
even that which he seemeth to have.” 

“Tell the vision to no man.” Thus the 
full accomplishment of the Saviour’s work was 
allowed. “Had they known, they would not 
have crucified the Lord of glory.” If such 
proof of the Messiahship of Jesus had been 
spread before them as the transfiguration scene 
afforded, the Jewish rulers and the Jewish 
people might have been compelled by the irre¬ 
sistible force of the evidence to believe on 
him ; and if they had believed on him, he 
would not have been betrayed into their hands, 
nor condemned by Pilate, nor crucified on Cal¬ 
vary. All would have withheld their impious 
hands, and the work of our redemption would 
not have been accomplished. 

Ungodly men work out their own evil de¬ 
signs, and yet they are instrumental in the 
carrying forth of God’s merciful purposes. 
Men act as they do, because they are blind or 
heedless ; and yet because they thus act, the 
salvation of God’s people is perfected. Well 
might Paul, while meditating on a kindred 
subject, exclaim, “ Oh the depth of the riches 
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! 


274 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

How unsearchable are his judgments, and his 
ways past finding out!” 

“Tell the vision to no man.” Thus the 
Saviour taught his disciples to restrain them¬ 
selves , and to wait the Lord's time. It is much 
easier sometimes to speak than to keep silence. 
We are so excited by the occasion, so rejoiced 
at the loving-kindness of God to ourselves or 
at the success of his cause around us, or so 
anxious about the salvation of the souls of 
others, that we feel almost under constraint 
to speak ; or, on the other hand, when we 
hear the religion of Jesus maligned, or slan¬ 
derous statements made respecting some one 
who we know is not deserving of such cal¬ 
umny, or some one is boasting of his own do¬ 
ings for the purpose of disparaging others and 
injuring their influence for good, our very 
blood boils when listening; but it is not the 
time to speak; it would be wasting words; it 
would be only giving an oceasion to the ad¬ 
versary to sin more. We must wait and suf¬ 
fer and pray and labor, assured that concern¬ 
ing such things, 


“ God is his own interpreter, 
And he will make it plain.' 


THE SOLEMN CHARGE. 


275 


“Tell the vision to no man. Thus all 
vaunting on the part of the disciples was pre¬ 
vented. These three disciples made more rapid 
progress in divine knowledge than the rest. 
They were able to apprehend more of the 
mystery of godliness, more of the incarnation, 
more of the work and glory of Christ; and 
there was danger, as they had received greater 
privileges, of boasting of their superior advan¬ 
tages. Jesus would save his'favored disci¬ 
ples from this sin, and he would save others 
from the irritation which such boasting would 
naturally stir up in their minds. Jesus is too 
kind to permit any of his disciples not so priv¬ 
ileged as others to be gloried over in this man¬ 
ner. Their relation of the wondrous scene 
would doubtless have not only excited envy 
in the breasts of the other disciples, but it 
would probably have tended in some measure 
to pander to their carnal hopes of a temporal 
kingdom and to the glory that awaited them 
as the followers of One who was to be King 
of the Jews. When Paul had been exalted 
to the third heaven, lest he should be exalted 
above measure, there was given him a thorn 
in the flesh to buffet him. Silence no doubt 
was imposed upon the disciples for the same 


276 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

purpose. Silence to some even of God’s chil¬ 
dren would, under such circumstances, be a 
grievous thorn. 

“ Tell the vision to no man.” Are we not 
taught by this solemn charge of Jesus that 
Christians should jealously watch over their 
Christian experiences , and not lightly divulge 
them ? Even to his fellow-disciples the disci¬ 
ple of Jesus cannot relate all which the Sav¬ 
iour has often permitted him to taste. Some 
Christian people are perpetually moved with 
a notion that they must testify to whatever 
manifestation of God is granted to themselves 
at the risk of bringing shallowness and weak¬ 
ness upon their own experience. But in one 
form or other, this reserve and silence which 
Jesus imposed upon his three disciples are 
imposed upon all who have been admitted 
into the mysteries of salvation, and have been 
brought near to the inaccessible glory. We 
must ponder these things for a season in our 
hearts, till the soul has fully made them her 
own, and only speak when we have come def¬ 
initely to know. There is a reverence which 
becomes us when we stand looking out into 
the Infinite and Eternal. The time will doubt¬ 
less come to speak; but first there is a time 


THE SOLEMN CHARGE. 277 

to meditate, lest we desecrate and degrade 
that knowledge which is too high for us. We 
must expect, too, the shadow of these infinite 
things to "rest more or less upon us, till we 
have been raised from the dead; and then we 
shall know even as we are known. The day 
was not far distant from the disciples of the 
Lord, when Christ’s rising from the dead should 
take off all restraints, when the chosen wit¬ 
nesses of the transfiguration should no longer 
be obliged to conceal the heavenly vision, 
when they should be at full liberty to confirm 
the faith of the church by recounting this pre¬ 
lude to Immanuel’s glory. 

In fine, as these disciples came down from 
the mount, let us reflect how diversified are the 
states of God’s people upon earth! Though 
these three disciples were exalted to the very 
heavens in point of privilege, they had to de¬ 
scend into the valley again, and go through 
much tribulation on their way to the kingdom. 
Thus it is with all the people of God. Their 
life here is at best a checkered scene. Joy is 
quickly followed by sorrow. If we are some¬ 
times favored with special manifestations of 
divine mercy and grace, glimpses and pledges 
of future glory, yet they are never of Jong 


278 JESUS ON THE HOLY MOUNT. 

continuance. They are soon withdrawn. “Two 
heavens are too much for those to expect who 
never deserve one.” We must come down 
from the mount where we have had commun¬ 
ion with God, where we have enjoyed un¬ 
speakable delight, and of which we have been 
saying, “ It is good to be here for even there 
“ we have no continuing city.” 

Blessed be God, there is a mountain of 
glory and joy before us, whence we shall never 
come down; and when we have reached that 
mountain, we may say with emphasis, “It 
is good to be here.” We shall need no tab¬ 
ernacle, for we shall dwell in the temple of 
God, and shall go no more out for ever. We 
shall need no tables spread for refreshment, as 
we often require here ; for we shall sit down 
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the king¬ 
dom of our Father, and be satisfied with the 
goodness of his house, even of his holy place. 
“ Blessed are they who are called to the mar¬ 
riage supper of the Lamb.” 









Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

111 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724) 779-2111 













































































